Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
One of the most important of all the virtues, next to love itself, is the virtue of humility. The problem, however, with humility is that it is probably one of the most misunderstood of all the virtues.
More often than not, when most people think of ‘humility’ or the ‘humble’ person, often the image of the groveling, completely self-facing individual comes to mind. Of course, such images could not be further from the true definition of humility and the humble person.
The English word, humility, comes from the Latin word, humus, which means ‘earth’ or ‘ground.’ A person, then, who is humble and practices humility possesses a clear-eyed understanding of their true identity. As human beings, we are the created and not the creator. Humility is a profound understanding of our deepest identity as creatures who have been gifted with inestimable value and an eternal destiny. That is the ‘right order’ of creation.
It is when we foolishly are deceived into believing that we are ‘not of the earth,’ not the creature but ‘the omnipotent creator’ that such arrogance inevitably leads to heartache and disaster in this life and the next. For it is when we ‘exalt’ ourselves that we are ‘humbled’ but in ‘humbling’ ourselves, that we are exalted.