I want to go on before starting this subject about humility to show you, o reader, my intent for writing about virtues and vices. The purpose is for self-improvement: to war against our vices and strengthen our virtues. I know it's hard to do this, but all character creating takes patience and time as well as desire and effort. There is great reward in doing this, and it is something within your power to do. I want to work on myself personally, so I can be a virtuous man, and have the joy of a virtuous life that God offers man, but it takes hard work to strive for excellence. Now, I will start with humility.
C.S. Lewis says it best when he said that humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. What he meant is that humility isn't about bringing your self-worth down but lifting other people's self-worth up. Paul said in Philippians that we should esteem others better than ourselves. In the same writing, Paul talked about Christ humbling Himself from being God to being a man: not just any man but a slave. We don't picture the all-powerful, majestic God being a slave, but that's what Jesus Christ did. The best example of this is the Passover ceremony: Christ got a towel and went on His knees to wash the apostle's feet. This is significant cause not even a slave did such a thing: the custom of the day was to provide water for guests to wash their own feet. Jesus did something not even a slave would do. That's humility. Notice that this Passover was the night before His crucifixion, and all Christ did was serve the apostles.
It's true what Jesus said that those who are great need to serve; when He said this, He brought a child to them. Why? What lesson can we learn from a child in humility? The most innocent of children are humble: Children are curious and teachable and are willing to learn through examples of adults. Children are good imitators: Children idolize heroes like dad or mom or heroes they read about. Even Solomon said it best in Proverbs 17:6:"Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers." Children want to be like their heroes--just hope it's a good hero. That's why Christ came to show us the example to live by, and children can imitate it. But, it takes humility to see a hero beyond yourself: proud people only see themselves as heroes and no one else--it's sad but true.
A Hero of humility is Esther: she stood out when Vashi's pride made her lose the queenship. Esther did not decorate herself with jewels and gold, but only asked what the eunuch suggested and that gave her favor. When she was told about the Jews being slaughtered by degree, she chose to fast for three days and risk her life to see the king. Even though she was hungry and scared to death, she made two banquets for the king and her foe--sacrificing herself to feed her enemy. That's humility. Eventually, when Haman's plot was revealed when Esther petitioned for the life of her people, her humility prevailed cause Haman and his sons were hanged: saving the Jews.
Humility is a sacrifice: you have to shallow yourself and pride for the sake of others. Jesus said that whoever wants to be His disciple must deny himself. Moses did that all the time when the children of Israel tempted God ten times in the wilderness. God wanted justice, but Moses wanted mercy, so he pleaded for Israel. God, in His infinite mercy, often repented from His just wrath cause of Mose's humility. God, when Aaron and Miriam confronted Moses about his Ethiopian wife, God said that Moses was the meekest person on earth at the time. But, even Moses had his pride cause he wasn't able to go into the promised land cause he did not do what God said at Meribah. God told Moses to speak to the rock, but instead he used his staff to strike it in prideful anger instead of speaking humbly to the rock to give water. His mistake was for our learning.
Humility is hard because it requires selflessness. Only with the Spirit of the humble Christ can God teach us to be humble as Christ is humble. God's Spirit works in us to write God's ways on our hearts and minds, and sometimes it requires lessons from experiences of others or self to really solidify this foundation. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches, and without God, we can do nothing. But, Being humble is doable with effort and love.
