It’s a daily experience that flies under the radar the majority of the time. Every frustration, every inconvenience, every time we don’t get our way, and even in the portion of pain, there is a time—an opportunity—for humility.
Let me take you deep into one of my most recent moments: we have been getting some electrical work done in our house. Improved lighting, better power points, and the like. When the electrician arrived this morning, he knocked on the door and said, looking to the heavens, with his friendly, engaging smile, “It’s not good news, I’m afraid.” The forecast for a storm and 80mm (3”) of rain meant climbing on the roof wasn’t such a good idea. As an ex-safety professional, I certainly understood. He arrived sick on Monday and quickly returned home. He’s already been on the job two full days (it was supposed to take two days). And he’s a lovely older guy.
But I was watching myself as I heard these words. I know the nature of my heart. Part of me wants my way, part of me doesn’t want to rock the boat, and another part of me wants to see if there’s any innovative way to solve the problem at hand. It can be a real internal battle even if I do have the countenance of peace.
Here was part of the range of the thoughts and feelings running through me:
· “… don’t you want these parts of the job?” – the part of my heart that sees I wouldn’t want to do this work.
· “… I didn’t expect this… Steve, you didn’t expect this… okay, so what now?” – the part of my heart that doesn’t like surprises.
· “… he’s right. Look up and see for yourself.” – the part of my heart that is compelled to wrestle with truth.
· “… wow, if only he knew how much work we’ve done to prepare the house (twice now) for this! This is a ‘massive’ inconvenience.” – the part of my heart that sees first world problems as bigger than they actually are.
· “… I wonder if he can be talked around…” – the part of my heart that resembles ‘the player’.
· “… stop making this out to be bigger than it is, Steve!” – the part of my heart that sees things realistically.
· “… but my wife really wants this work done!” – the part of my heart not wanting to disappoint someone I love.
This was literally a moment of time in the context of my life, and whilst not all our moments bear such unanticipated displeasure, we do face many of these moments, and some days are filled with them!
In moments where we are rattled by disappointment, surprise, frustration, betrayal and the like, we have our greatest opportunities to be humble, because humility isn’t required until we’re tempted into pride.
The way we handle our disappointments, the horrible surprises, our frustrations and betrayals are evidence of our humility or lack thereof. Humility, whilst it seems the champion of all virtue, is hard won. It never feels virtuous. It feels as if we’re losing out, and the very best of this is the delight we can enjoy that someone is blessed.
And people are really blessed when we smile pleasantly instead of becoming angry. People are blessed when we restrain our initial emotion, when we exercise patience and self-control.
There is no shortcut to humility. It always requires a sacrifice. We can only ever be humble each moment as it comes. But, as we sow in humility, resisting the overtures of pride to have our own way, we reap untold blessings in the relational realm, and these may encourage our hearts to keep the faith.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
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