Humilityናሙና

Humility is hard

Soon after moving to America, Albert Einstein was asked to address a group of mathematicians at Princeton University. He hesitated, feeling he had little to share with the professors that they didn’t already know. Eventually, he agreed to present tensor analysis, a key aspect of relativity theory. When Einstein arrived, the campus was packed with cars and crowds eager to hear the master speak. Taking his seat in the front row Einstein looked about the packed hall and remarked, ‘I never realized that in America there was so much interest in tensor analysis’. Genuine humility is a paradox in a world quick to reward self-interest and pride. Blatant self-promotion is the secret sauce of much of our media and social media. Personal gratification underpins much of today’s cultural consumerism.

On the other hand, humility is often misread as weakness or passivity. To add to the confusion, self-aggrandisement is sometimes cloaked in humble brags and insincere self-deprecation. Therefore, many become skeptical of it, dismissing humility as a manipulative tool.

And yet, we still yearn to be in the company of the humble, don’t we? Too late in life, I came to realise that living a consistent, deeply humble life is beyond my own capacity. It requires the Holy Spirit’s supernatural strength. Only then can I balance enough self-awareness to accept my own limitations and be compelled to elevate others despite theirs; to choose good faith over skepticism or worse – cynicism. When we wait on God for His leading, our own vain conceits give way to valuing others over ourselves.

Written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES