On humility and humiliation

Humility is worthy of admiration....

Humble people impress me.

I long to be modest, restrained, dignified, gracious... Humble!

However, whenever God grants me the gift of growing in humility I am slow to accept it. The path is long and difficult, and I lack courage and perseverance. You see, often the path to humility comes through seeming (or real) humiliation. Giving up the 'self', my pride in achievements and recognition, in exchange for a gracious embrace of my failings and imperfections.

Still, I pray that God helps me along this path. I certainly have enough failures and faults to pave it!

This quote on humility and humiliation is a wonderful insight for me. Perhaps it may mean something to you?

Years ago, someone told me that humility is central to the spiritual life. That made sense to me: I was proud to think of myself as humble! But this person did not tell me that the path to humility, for some of us at least, goes through humiliation, where we are brought low, rendered powerless, stripped of pretenses and defenses, and left feeling fraudulent, empty, and useless—a humiliation that allows us to regrow our lives from the ground up...

- Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak