Humility

Even knowing the pride is one of the things God hates most, and knowing that I wrestle with my own measure of that distasteful stuff, I will still talk about what bothers me in the general discussion of pride and humility (the topic seems to rise cyclically in Christian circles).

There are those who seem to fixate on how proud they are, knowing it’s something that’s hard to ever be free of they’re continually “confessing” it. (I’m more of the opinion that confession is to convict us and change things– not just to report the status quo– or to excuse the way you talk about things.)

And then there are those who speak of humility as though it were self-abasement (humiliation).

A more accurate description, really, is that humility is utter honesty– to see things as they truly are.

While I still feel that is a fine description, at church the pastor’s been talking about how humility has everything to do with our relationship to God, and I came across a quote this weekend that brings both these ideas together so well:

The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real hight against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.

Phillip Brooks

This entry was posted in Quotes.

3 thoughts on “Humility

  1. That’s an amazing quote that I will have to think about today.

    Have you ever read “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis. I love how he describes the idea of humility in that book. Ultimately, God wants us to see ourselves as no better, but also no worse than anyone else. We are all equals and I think that in the false concept of humilty–like you said–we tend to run ourselves down. But that’s not reality. Reality is being equally happy in our accomplishments as in someone elses accomplishments, and as happy in someone elses accomplishments as our own. Then we all realize that without Christ we are nothing. Cool thoughts!

  2. I read The Screwtape Letters when I was in college. I remember loving the first half or so and slogging through a section toward the end.

    It would be interesting to revisit it and see if I felt the same way.

  3. I haven’t noticed that cycle you described of the pride/humility discussions, but I like your concluding quotation from Phillip Brooks.

    (Love these colors and design, by the way)

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