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

[Pic] It's amazing when you just run into a HUMBLE international sports star... There he was at my daughter's school!

This afternoon I nipped out to fetch my 8 year old daughter from her school here in Pretoria.  When I arrived I parked next to a very nice convertible Audi with the registration LR-05 GP.  There was a huge commotion on the go among the kids... I wondered what was happening, but thought nothing of it... Then suddenly there was Lucas Radebe!

He had come to fetch his niece from school.  Can you imagine the conversation that led to him fetching his niece!?  I'm sure that his grandmother, or mother, was involved somewhere along the lines!  ha ha.  "Lucas, your aunty wants you to fetch your cousin from school on Friday afternoon".  "But, gran, I am a very busy and important person!", "no Lucas, you are my grandson, so be there at 3pm!  Don't be late!"

There is something very humbling about being around one's family!  I often feel that dichotomy in my own life.  In some circles I am treated quite differently to how my mom treats me!  I think we all need a bit of reminding that we should "not think more highly of [ourselves] than we ought to, but in humility consider others better than yourself" (Phil 2:3-5).

Anyway, Lucas Radebe was a nice guy.  He was polite and patient

 with hundreds of kids swarming around him - he even took the time to sign  a piece of paper for my 8 year old daughter.

Now I know why the Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs decided to name their band after his team when he was in the UK.

Technorati tags: Lucas Radebe, Kaiser Chiefs, famous, signature, humble

True humility... I need to learn more of it.

The day is over... Amazingly, this spoilt brat (yup, that's me!) survived the day just fine! No phone, no electricity, no car...

I suppose I need a few more days like this (not only to be reminded how lucky I am to have a car, electricity, and telephones on hand), but also to be reminded of the many who live their lives without these luxuries and commodities!

Thanks to those who read the post and smiled... To the one or two who emailed me their horror stories about Telkom, ESKOM, and various car problems. At least I didn't feel alone.

However, as I sit at home, my children are asleep, Megan and I are catching up on some correspondence, I am at peace.

So, after the rant of this morning I turned to my devotional reading the heading is True humility:

1. Prayer of invocation: Almighty God, you have sent Jesus to show us how to live. Grant me the power of your Holy Spirit so that I may follow him in faithfulness all the days of my life. Amen.

Basically humility is the attitude of one who stands constantly under the judgment of God. It is the attitude of one who is like the soil. Humility comes from the Latin word humus, fertile ground. The fertile ground is there, unnoticed, taken for granted, always there to be trodden upon. It is silent, inconspicuous, dark and yet it is always read to receive any seed, ready to give it substance and life. The more lowly, the more fruitful, because it becomes really fertile when it accepts all the fefuse of the earth. It is so low that nothing can soil it, humiliate it; it has accepted the last place and cannot go any lower. In that position nothing shatter the soul's serenity, its peace and joy.

-- From Living Prayer by Anthony Bloom.

2. Benediction: Live today in Christ's presence, remembering he is near and will sustain you as you serve his name. Amen.

So, God clearly anticipated my mood, and the situations that would expose my need of growth and grace. I thank God for knowing me even better than I know my self. This day has ended well. Thanks be to God.

Technorati tags: grace, patience, devotion