More on humility

The story is told of the rabbi and cantor who, on Yom Kippur day, the Day of Atonement, lament their sins at great length, each concluding that he is a nobody. Then the sexton, inspired by their example, laments his sins and declares that he, too, is a nobody. "Nuh," says the rabbi to the cantor, who is he to be a nobody?" - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon

How this story sums up our struggle with true humility. My mom was a huge Mac Davis fan, and I'll always remember his tongue-in-cheek song,

O Lord, It's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way
I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me. I must be a hell of a man
O Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doing the best that I can.

There's a pretty clear difference in my mind between thinking that I must be more humble and realizing that I think entirely too highly of myself. There is also a difference between humility and self-deprecation or worse, self-loathing.

I think that perhaps Fr. Spitzer's emphasis on striving to identify with our contributive identity rather than the comparative one serves us well on this topic, too. If I find my own value only through perpetual comparison with others, I am unlikely to able to find healthy humility. On the other hand, if the primary sense in which I come to realize that I am somebody is an awareness that I am somebody the eternal Son was willing to come carry home, then I have both the humility of knowing I need him and the worth that comes from knowing that I am his.

There remains an interesting trap, though, in allowing the Spirit to apply this humility to all areas of our lives. We can be completely in balance in some areas and have others that remain problematic for us.

So while he had the wrong reasons in mind, Mac at least had the title right.