What Is Humility?

Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. - Isaiah 29:17-19

Humility can be a scary word. For some, our religious upbringing or just what we’ve heard from religious people has been so full of judgment, so lacking in love and compassion. Humility in that sense is really more about humiliation, or perhaps self-loathing. We were taught to always focus on how bad we are and that will keep us humble. Sigh.

That’s not the way of Jesus.

What if humility is about acknowledging our flaws, our brokenness, but in the context of radical love, radical compassion? So in that sense, it’s not because we’re horrible people that we’re humble - but instead it’s because we are so dang beloved (even though there are areas of brokenness in our lives) that we’re humble.

As the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative puts it, “Sometimes we’re fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we’re shattered by things we would never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion.” ― Bryan Stevenson

The fact that we’re made in God’s image means we’re of infinite worth. The fact that we all have areas of brokenness in our lives means that we can all have compassion on one another. Those two things together are the definition of humility: seeing ourselves in right relation to God; seeing ourselves in right relation to one another.

Speak with Jesus today about what it might mean for you to move from self-loathing to healthy, joyful humility? Or perhaps you’re being called to express humility in how you relate to another broken human in your life today - talk with Jesus about that, too.