Jesus said, “Everyone who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made great.” (Luke 14:11) When thinking about this quote, I was reminded of the story of two senior citizens who were talking about the wisdom and humility that come with age. One volunteered, “When I was young, I was very proud. My pride caused me more worry! I was constantly worrying about what other people thought about me. When I got older and wiser, I said to myself, I don’t care what they think about me. And now that I’m even older and wiser, I realize they weren’t thinking about me at all.” I guess we all have some concern about what other people think of us. We all have to make some judgments about other people. Can this person do the job I need done; can that person really handle the pressure of this situation; does that other person really want to work for the benefit of our organization, and so forth? But the one thing that we cannot do in regard to another person, or another person do in our regard, is see into someone else’s heart. So it’s possible for someone to think very highly of me and not know what I really think about them. Someone can think we are wonderful, and not understand the evil hidden in the recesses of our inner being. Can we take joy in knowing someone admires us for all the wrong reasons? Someone said somewhere that true humility begins with truth. That means we have to be honest with ourselves about ourselves. And perhaps most important of all, we must remember that God does see into our hearts. Nothing is hidden from him. Perhaps that is the foundation of all true humility.
