Embrace Humility

A little bit of humility goes a long way. Humility serves to give a solid boost toward attaining a more positive attitude about life, and toward becoming easier, if not more enjoyable to be around. Prideful persons tend to be negative and defensive and are usually difficult to connect with. I remember a man who used to say, and seemed to actually mean, “I’m so glad you could see me today.” His opinion of himself was out of touch with reality—that is, his own reality to others. The “puffed-up” have difficulty getting past themselves and quickly bring conversations back to themselves.

The word “humble” comes from the Latin “humilis,” meaning low, slight, small; and it is akin to the Latin “humus,” meaning soil or earth. The humble thus represent the “soil of the earth.” It is perhaps significant that the word “human” is also related to “humus.” This accords with the Biblical vision of humanity being made from the earth. The traditional words at a graveside committal service include: “This body we commit to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust....” Our bodies will all return to the ground from which they came.

Being of the earth or soil also means being open and susceptible to our surroundings, like the good soil of farm country, being able to grow whatever seeds are planted therein. Prideful persons, on the other hand, have difficulty hearing, assimilating and developing creative maturity from the input offered by others. One of the hallmarks of humble persons is good listening.

Often the greatest people are also the humblest. It was said that Moses was the humblest man on earth in his day. Even Jesus of Nazareth said of himself, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” More recently, Abraham Lincoln was, like Moses, said to be as humble as any person alive in his day. Franklin Delano Roosevelt became not only one of our greatest presidents, but also one of the humblest. Winston Churchill humbly said, at the end of World War II, “I was not the lion, but I was called to be the roar of the lion.”

Life experiences humble us. Pain and suffering humble us. Failure humbles us. Even success can humble us. We must never forget that we are of the earth and our bodies are destined to return to the soil. The closer we get to our own humanity, the closer we get to humility.

Humility means honest self-appraisal, seeing yourself as you really are, faults and failings as well as strengths and accomplishments. With humility comes a quiet sense of self-acceptance, if not self-satisfaction, as in the “I could have done better; I could have done worse. I appreciate and accept what I did. I pretty much like my life the way it has unfolded.”

The humble person is able to look past themselves, to look at others and the world, to actually see things the way they are. The humble person can become self-forgetful—and what joy there is in that, in being free of all those vexing “self” issues. The truth is, humility does not mean thinking less of yourself; it means thinking of yourself less.

That being said, it is nevertheless better to think too little than too much of yourself. It is better to let others to sing your praises than for you to do so yourself. As is recited every Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust; and unto dust you shall return.” We are humble infants when we arrive here, and humbled elders by the time we leave.