Humility
I like that word, humility. Reading what others say about it encourages growth.
Joan Chittister is a favorite writer of mine on this topic. She paints gentle strokes with words—inviting you closer to the heart of what humility actually looks like. Here’s what she shares in her book “The Monastery of the Heart.”
“Our humanity is the clay upon which the Divine Potter and the heat of life’s kiln work to shape and glaze our pliant selves into vessels of the Godlife within.”
She writes, “We keep the reverence of God always before our eyes and never forget it. Humility dispels all notions of ‘merit theology.’ We simply do not need to ‘earn’ God—in fact, we cannot earn God, none of us, not even the holiest among us. We must simply recognize that God is God and we are not. We are not in control.”
She goes on, “Humility is that we love not our own will— rather we shall imitate with our actions that saying of Jesus, ‘I have come not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me.”
“Humility teaches us that God’s will is best for us, whether we understand that will or not and that the marrow of the spiritual life lies in learning to trust the God who created us.”
And I found this portion rather fascinating. “We must learn to persevere in order to discover what darkness—as well as light—has to teach us as life is not a straight line, not even the spiritual life. There are obstacles and obstructions, resistance and regrets, in the path everywhere. Humility enables us to understand that there are reasons for darkness, blessings in difficulties, hope to be gained from struggles that scour the soul…” The morsels she writes about are worth pondering as she summarizes twelve steps of humility.
1. To recognize that God is God.
2. To know that God’s will is best for us. 3. To be willing to receive direction. 4. To endure and not grow weary.
5. To acknowledge faults.
6. To be content with less than the best. 7. To let go of image making.
8. To learn from community.
9. To listen to others.
10. To abandon the urge to ridicule.
11. To speak kindly.
12. To be simple: to be serene.
Psalm 86:10 is like hitting the refresh button upon the soul. “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.”
Amen.
