Healthy Humility Is A Prelude To Thanksgiving

Healthy Humility Is a Prelude to Thanksgiving

The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

In Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel Christ Recrucified, there is a scene in which four village men confess their sins to one another in the presence of the pope. One of the men, Michelis, cries out in bloated humility, “How can God let us live on the earth? Why doesn’t he kill us to purify creation?”

“Because, Michelis,” the pope answered, “God is a potter; he works in mud.”^a

Whether you see it the same way or not, the point is that humility is lowly. And that’s where God meets us—in the places where we are humble. That’s where we become malleable. Humility is the opposite of pride, of course. Pride is riddled with self-doubt that’s desperate to deny any weakness. So it swings the heart’s pendulum of self-assessment toward feelings of superiority. Humility does the opposite. Well, not quite. Healthy humility is not about feeling inferior.

There are two kinds of humility: true and false.

True humility is grounded in a sense of dignity and self-worth. In other words, it seeks an accurate inventory of both strengths and weaknesses. When it receives a compliment, it doesn’t deflect it with self-effacement and demure posturing. That’s the approach of false humility, which is built on self-deprecation. False humility clumsily rejects its own gifts, talents, and accomplishments out of hand. “Oh, I had nothing to do with it,” false humility says in response to a compliment for hard work.

False humility’s self-appraisal is just as unhelpful and distorted as pride’s. While pride takes the position of superiority, false humility takes inferiority as its stance. Both are unrealistic. Neither is healthy.

So how would you measure your personal barometer of false humility? Are you taking an accurate inventory of both your strengths and weaknesses? What situations can tempt you to respond with false humility? Are you willing to discuss them with your partner? How would your marriage grow by an increase in true humility?

The goal is a truly humble heart that recognizes both positive attributes as well as inadequacies. It’s a heart that shines a light on its dark corners and confesses its neediness—of others and of God. By the way, it’s also the perfect prelude to a grateful heart on Thanksgiving.

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.

—François de La Rochefoucauld

^a 158