“freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble”.
Humility is the opposite of hubris.
In practice, humility is the art of accurately understanding your importance, your power, and your place in the grand scheme of things. It is knowing and respecting your position in the hierarchy of the universe.
I once heard a story, possibly apocryphal, about Charles De Gaul. After the war, someone passed him on the street and said, “Beautiful Day!”. De Gaul replied, “Thank you”.
Humility is not something that we, as humans, tend to do well. It is in our nature to overrate our power and our importance. We do this both individually and corporately. Usually, the consequences are manageable. We just come off as pompous and pushy. Sometimes, however, the consequences are more dire. Picture the traffic stop where the driver says to the officer…..”Do you know who I am?” This rarely ends well.
I once heard an interview with Robert Dinero. When asked if he believed in God, he replied, “All I can say is that when I meet him…….he’s got some explaining to do.”
The problem is that, at our core, we believe that we, mankind, are the top of the ladder, the apex life form. This takes two forms. The less common form is to deny that there is any higher power. This is the path of the true atheist and it is, at least, intellectually honest. The more common form is to believe that we get to pass judgment on the activities of God. At best, this is intellectually dishonest.
First, let me clarify something. We are not the apex life form. God is. He is in charge……of everything. He either instigates or allows everything that happens in our world…….both the things we call good and the things we call bad. Read Job if you disagree. This is great when good things happen. We thank him when our lottery ticket wins. It becomes a problem when bad things happen……..someone we love dies…..we get cancer. Then we deny God…..we get mad at God. Or we blame it on someone or something else…..free will, Satan, or bad luck. We do these things because we firmly believe that we get to pass judgment on God’s activities. We get to decide whether we approve or disapprove of God’s work. We get to decide if what God did was good or bad. We get to pass judgment on God. We decide if he made a mistake. We believe this idea because, in practice, we do not accept the fact that we are below God on the ladder of authority. In a word……we lack humility.
If we are truly practicing humility, if we truly recognize God’s sovereignty, when we experience something that we don’t like, we say that a bad thing happened, but we recognize God’s ultimate authority, control, and responsibility, and then we do the hardest thing that we are called on to do. We trust God. We trust in his love and in his promise to take care of us…….in the long run. Because God promises, for those who love him, that everything will be OK…….in the end.
If everything is not OK now……then this isn’t the end.
Humility demands trust, trust grows into faith, and faith is the path to paradise……where everything is OK
It is very hard to practice Christianity honestly without humility……..and that is why so many of us struggle.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8, ESV
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
God, 2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus, Matthew 18:2-4, ESV
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
John 12:3, ESV