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Whatever good others credit us with, we let it flow through us. We are like tributaries in which all praise returns to the Sea.
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Being humble does not mean we refuse praise or do not celebrate our accomplishments. When a young Protestant preacher, in my twenties, persons would often speak well of my messages given to congregations. I would deflect the praise. However, a teacher taught me to accept the compliment and say something like, "Thank you, I put a lot of work into that sermon." Hence, there is nothing humble about a false-humility that rejects the compliments or commendations of others. Again, as said above, we let it flow through us, with gratitude. We can look upon the good we do and celebrate it, for it is good.
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This self-effacement is not weakness and is not belittling the self. One recognizes what good pertains to oneself, that is not solely in oneself. That good is in and from the Good.
A Story from the Desert Fathers -
The devil appeared to a brother in the disguise of an angel of light, saying to him, "I am the archangel Gabriel, and I was sent to you." "Make sure you were not sent to somebody else," said the brother to him, "for I am not worthy to see an angel," and the demon immediately disappeared.
Many of our inner ills, our "devils," would be resolved with a spirit of humbleness. In modesty, says the spiritual contemplative François Fénelon (b. 1651), is the delight of "heaven on earth." He advises for one to "get out of yourself," with the consequence "that the love of God may live in your soul." Certainly, pride fills the self with the self: we sometimes use the word "puffed up" for arrogance. Humbleness allows one to be like the valley-spirit, as the Taoists say, and one can, then, receive the inflow of all good from the Good. Being like a mountain, one cannot receive, while being like a valley, one can receive. The emptiness of the valley is its capacity to welcome. By lowering oneself, rather than being haughty, spaciousness resides to enjoy all the graces of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful One.
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Yes, the One, for I myself cannot be humbled rightly in relation only to myself. I am humbled not by myself or due to myself, or in comparing myself to anyone else. I am humbled realizing That in Whom I live, That gives life and breath to me, and presides over my birth and my death:
Somehow I must relate myself to something more than I am, more than I can be when I am completely and thoroughly expressed.
I must know clearly that it is God who is the Author and Creator of my life. ... This is the secret of humility - I cannot be humble unless I have truly found something about which I must be humble. There can be no health in me, nothing but a sickening arrogance and stalking pride until my relation to God scales me down to size. Without that experience, I am unbearable to my friends and a burden to myself. This I must say and in its light order my ways and direct my path.
*Howard Thurman. "Not We Ourselves," in Meditations of the Heart.
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(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
*François Fénelon. A Guide to True Peace: or A Method of Attaining to Inward and Spiritual Prayer.
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