Humility is Hard to Come By, But God’s a Pro

Humility is hard to come by unless you’re God. If anyone has a right to pride, it’s God. God has absolute bragging rights about everything. Yet God—being infinitely good—is infinitely humble. First of all, God is honest, and that’s the basis of humility. Honesty is right relationship with all that exists. It’s that paradoxical unity between detachment and unconditional love. Thomas Keating writes: “This is the way God relates to us: not interested in his own majesty or transcendence, but trying to be nothing—without, of course, much success. It must be fun when you are everything to be nothing. In any case, his disposition to give away everything that he has or is, seems to characterize the divine goodness and compassion.”

Today we are challenged to imitate God’s humility. Can we become “nothing” in a healthy way? In our right relationship with God, other people, and the world, we need to give ourselves away. But—here’s the surprise!—we lose nothing. In opening our hand to give, our hand is ready to receive.