Humility

Humility

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

UGH. UGH. UGH. My inner critic was on a roll. You are terrible with details—the worst! How could you forget to confirm the meeting with Angela after getting dates from Kendra and Kristin?!

We were supposed to have a business meeting in the morning, had had the meeting on our calendars for weeks, and yet I’d never confirmed with Angela. And so I did what I should—humbly apologized to Angela, taking full ownership of the mistake without excuses, and then apologized to my business partners for failing to follow through, letting them know the steps I was taking to make it right.

They were well within their rights to be irritated with me, and I awaited their response a bit anxiously, knowing I deserved their ire for throwing a wrench into our week’s tasks.

What I received was grace—from all involved. Angela sent a kind response suggesting a new date, and as I sent that new date to Kendra and Kristin, they cheerfully agreed, good-naturedly teasing me about whether I had confirmed our new meeting even as they admitted to mistakes and the need for grace.

Their gentle, humble response to my error is not the norm in society, and I know it. I’ve worked in places and alongside people who use mistakes to showcase smug superiority, an opportunity to wield the error as a weapon against the offender in a vicious game of workplace politics. And I know people who deflect, hide, or blame others for their mistake, too proud or too scared to admit they are fallible and human. Neither response is godly, and both lead to distrust and dysfunction when left unchecked and unaddressed. Toxic environments—work, volunteer or otherwise—exist, in part, because of a lack of humility.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to better. Jesus’ style of leadership is always from a position of humility, not pride. He modeled humility in leading others, in cultivating relationships, in interacting with those who hated him, and he told us to do the same.

Lord, thank you for establishing the standard. Help us to humbly own our mistakes and quickly extend grace for the mistakes of others. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Practice acknowledging your mistakes without excuse or shifting the blame, and offer unqualified grace when others do the same.