"He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. When our virtues become more mature, we shall not be more tolerant of evil; but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms."

- C.H. Spurgeon

Recently I was humbled by a man whose opinion I value. I was speaking Christianese and though I meant no harm or condemnation by what I was saying, I was definitelly being hypocritical. I cannot recall the exact topic, but I know that it had to do with accepting people and then in the next breath I said something that seemed less than accepting. Maybe accepting is the wrong word, I don't know and honestly I don't care either. The point was that I was hypocritically placing myself up on a pedistal and, as is the case with many - if not all - pedistals things got shaky fast and I fell from that point of pride...and man did I fall! WATHUMP!

The bumps and bruises did not stop there though....Nope not at all. I was discussing different topics with one of my friends and mentioned that I have yet to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I said this because I have not spoken in tongues or healed or prophesied in Jesus name to my knowledge. My friend quickly and boldly put me in my place telling me that I have been filled but have not yet lived it out in accordance with the truth. Basically he said "we prayed for you. Yes you have!" I was humbled twice.

And if that was not enough, I was humbled a third, fourth and fifth time as I found myself - thinking that by my knowledge of the scriptures I was strong enough to face temptations alone - falling into various inclinations to sin...in plain terms...I blew it. I did what I knew to be wrong in God's sight and sinned against God. Man was it humbling...to be honest, as I write these words I feel quite inadequate to claim any authority over these words, however I say them with confidence not of my own. (though doubt creeps in with these words - I hope).

What does it mean to be humble? What is humility? What does it look like? Feel like? And what does a life lived in confident humility mean to me? How do you become humble? Why is it necessary? These are questions for which I do not have the answers at this time. And the more I think on humility and even from what I see in the scriptures I find myself with more questions...like how is it that humility is so prized in the kingdom of heaven when it always sounds like a (for lack of better word) punishment to the proud?

Think on it.