Month: December 2019

I have been young, and now am old;
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or His children begging bread.
He is ever giving liberally and lending,
and His children become a blessing.
Depart from evil, and do good;
so shall you abide for ever.
For the Lord loves justice;
He will not forsake his saints.
The righteous shall be preserved for ever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall possess the land,
and dwell upon it for ever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

– Psalm 37:25-31

I once heard that the Psalms are the most tear-soaked pages of the Bible. This wouldn’t surprise me in the least: the Psalms are the most approachable content in the Bible (meaning more people have probably read them) and the content is rawly relatable (in many of them, David is lamenting – expressing sorrow over both his sins and the situation they placed him in – which cradles the grief-stricken reader). Point being, if you’re looking for a place to non-committally dip your toes in the water with the Bible, the book of Psalms is your best bet.

With my ogling over King David’s writing out of the way, let’s begin.

Justice Calls Upon Humility

Fairness requires having and understanding all of the facts available. It also does well to understand that there are going to be missing pieces, however small, and that those missing pieces may form the metaphorical grain of rice that tips the scale.

In other words, we have to accept that even doing our very best, we might very well get the verdict very wrong.

Still, justice mandates that we try. We must try, and we must try to compensate for the information we don’t know. In order to do that, we need to accept that there is information we don’t know, and from there we can assess the best way to compensate for the shortfall. The process can only start when we have the humility to be honest about the situation so that we can properly address it.

Previous understandings of humility may still pose a stumbling block. In lieu of returning to the post on humility, here’s a summary: humility is recognizing that humans are both great and greatly flawed, none better than another, and each with amazing talents as well as shortfalls. It’s seeing reality in its proper perspective.

Humility means nothing other than complete honesty about yourself. A genuinely humble person will be able to see both good and bad, both virtues and faults, both gifts and failings in herself. Since God loves you anyway, there is no virtue in making yourself out to be better than you are – and none in making yourself out to be worse.

– L. William Countryman, Good News of Jesus

In short, we need humility to properly assess fairness. Without gauging whether or not we’re on the right track, we can’t know if we’re on any track at all. Stay grounded; it gives us the baseline to walk uprightly forward.

Humility Slays Pride

Pride is another sin of excess. (I’m sensing a theme here.) In proper amounts, confidence is a good thing. When we are properly confident in our abilities, we can use them to help others. However, if we claim confidence in our abilities but wrongly so, it can lead to ruin.

That’s where humility and justice come in.

Humility calls for an honest assessment of ourselves, and justice demands fairness in the assessment. Using these virtues as tools, we can accurately determine our skills – strengths and weaknesses alike – and figure out the best path forward. In figuring out the best path forward, we not only choose our path, but we also prepare ourselves for what we are going to face – making it more likely that we will succeed.

By Defeating Pride, Humility Aids Success

Simple example from daily life (which I only recognized because I stopped to look around for it, even though it has been visible for reflection for a few years at this point). Are you an artist? A budding artist? A totally non-artist willing to have fun with art?

With respect to visual art, I absolutely fall into that final category. (Reference: slayer picture above.) Now the fun question: have you ever done one of those painting classes?

I have. I’ve gone with friends a couple of times. They’re a lot of fun! I highly recommend them if you like to have fun and can be light-hearted about the experience.

The first time I went, for that first half-hour, I painstakingly attempted to copy the teacher verbatim, stroke for stroke, breath for breath. I wanted the picture to be perfect. After about half an hour, I noticed that I wasn’t having much fun, that I was practically ignoring my friends in my efforts, and that I was getting flustered and frustrated and was only a hair away from seriously upset.

We had only painted a few strokes, but because I follow directions well, I thought that meant I could paint it perfectly the first time. What an ego! And, as I mentioned, it got in the way of everything else.

I let go of perfection, and the rest of the event was fun, playful, and friend-filled.

I took the lesson to my second round. Good thing, too: we were painting Starry Night, and there’s no way I’m Van Gogh. I realized as we were getting our paints that I didn’t want to be: I wanted to use different colors. And to try something slightly different with the moon. And to include more blatantly what I saw in the original painting as a ship stuck on top of the mountain.

We not only had a lot of fun, but I enjoy the painting I walked away with. It’s not a Van Gogh; it was never really intended to be. Because I knew I couldn’t precisely copy the master, I took what he did, learned from it, and made it my own and to better suit my tastes. I still like the painting for both the memories and as well as the image itself. It still tickles me to see the ship on the top of the mountain and the beautiful orange swirls in the night.

Humility let me accept my skills and style and adapt them to make something worth smiling at while it hangs on the wall.

Some ask if swallowing your pride is conceding defeat. I don’t think so. Humility is a sign of inner strength and wisdom.

– Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

Humility helped me to win on all fronts: great experience, playful time with friends, more fun with the painting itself, and a painting that I actually enjoy. (Meanwhile, the one I kept trying to get “perfect” is nowhere to be found.)

Know Thyself – Conquer Pride

Pride essentially breaks down into not knowing who we are in the grand scheme of things. We’re imperfect – that’s part of the nature of our humanity. Our imperfections are part of what make us beautiful. We are able to choose right or wrong, and every time we choose right is an enormous victory. Meanwhile, any time we choose wrong is an opportunity and prompting to lean on God because we were never meant to do this without Him.

Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.

– Aristotle, Politics

We are fallible, we are flawed – but we are also God’s beloved creation. There is balance in this truth. Humility helps us to know that we are but specks of sand in a desert compared to time, the absolute, and the Almighty. Simultaneously, there is no despair when we know God’s love for us.

Summary

Humility and justice travel hand-in-hand. Justice relies on humility to use correct data to arrive at an accurate result. Meanwhile, a rational perspective on an absolute scale – such as comparing oneself to Jesus during his years on Earth – has justice feeding into humility. Who are we, in all fairness, compared to the King of Kings?

Pride doesn’t stand a chance against humility and justice. When we’re honest with ourselves about our strengths and our weaknesses, we can properly assess a way forward and not get caught up in our own self-perceived grandiosity because, on a universal scale, we are dust. Talented, thoughtful dust, but dust nonetheless.

Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother.

– Zechariah 7:9

Further Reading

• From Pride to Humility: A Biblical Perspective by Dr. Stuart Scott
• Father Casey wrote a great article that is both approachable and helps us reflect on our individual struggles with pride. Maybe you forgive easily but you gossip just as easily. This article explains the problem of pride backed with various Bible verses and gives a list of several questions we can use to help us identify our strengths and weaknesses with respect to pride. Home run!
• Derek Prince also investigated pride and humility in this article with a more theological angle. I shrunk the text to read it (because it automatically loads at about 150% the size of other pages), but it was worth the effort as it to read about the seven self-humblings and seven exaltations of Jesus.
• Psalm 37 – the chapter in full. It’s a quick read, and I find it uplifting on days I find myself stewing on the unfairness of the world.
• Interested in learning more about the Psalms? Among Swords_into_ploughshares many offerings is an in-depth analysis of the Psalms. It’s definitely worth a skim or a thorough readthrough if you are studying the Psalms in depth.

Αλλ’ η Δίκη γαρ και κατά σκότον βλέπει.
(The eye of Justice sees even in the dark.)

– Sophocles, Oedipus

What is Justice?

Justice – the condition of being morally correct or fair

– Cambridge dictionary

It’s pretty simple: justice is fairness, and doing justice is doing the right thing in the circumstances. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out what’s right, fair, and just, like finding the way home when there’s only one road and it’s a straight shot to a visible structure. Sometimes, though, the best you can do is just the next right thing. Even figuring that out can be difficult, but there are resources to help us get better at determining the next right thing.

Trying to do what is right is important, both for us individually and for society at large. Can you imagine a country running well if more people were in prison than were free? What would happen if we could no longer trust the judicial system? This is what would happen: the country would crumble.

A republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.

– Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle

Justice is Absolute With Absolutely All of the Facts

In a lot of ways, justice is black-and-white: something is either just, or it’s not. However, we live in a pretty grey world; it can seem just to take a certain action one moment, but then more information comes in and that exact same action is clearly unjust and maybe even immoral.

For example, let’s say you’re in charge of a child who is outside playing. The kid comes inside and is covered in dirt and debris with grit under every fingernail. Generally, the reaction is to run some warm water, add bubbles, and scrub-a-dub-dub in the tub. That makes sense – unless that child is allergic to water. In that case, it would certainly be better to go the Elphaba route and wash with oils instead.

The same can be said for justice. Maybe we have a defendant who admits to being at the scene of the crime at the time of a murder, who was found holding the murder weapon, and who had a motive for wanting the victim dead. This scenario is as close to a slam dunk as most prosecutors can hope for! The jury is sent away to deliberate, everyone expecting to quickly move into sentencing, when someone bursts into the courtroom yelling at the defendant for trying to steal the glory for the kill. (Criminals aren’t generally known for their smarts.)

Justice in Everyday Life

Justice means that we appreciate and respect both God and other people, whether that’s honoring the Sabbath or honoring the dignity of the human person in all of its stages.

– Fr. Ben Bradshaw

Just like in court (probably even moreso), it’s not always easy to figure out what is right. However, there are a few guiding principles that can help us when we’re struggling with that question. It boils down to one big question: how can we respect everyone involved?

Ο αδικών του αδικουμένου κακοδαιμονέστερος.
(He who commits an act of injustice is in worse condition than he who suffers it.)

– Democritus

Justice and fairness is ultimately respecting the dignity of all persons involved and allowing them to accept the consequences of their actions. (Sidenote: consequences has a generally negative connotation, but the consequences of baking well are delicious baked goods – it can be positive or negative.) As a result, justice is not only fair, it is also loving: justice permits people to choose according to their will, to decide their own destiny rather than determine it for them.

In the same vein, we must also grant a quick mention to mercy: sometimes it is easier for all parties for mercy to be granted than for the full brunt force of justice to swing hard. Mercy deserves its own post, but it is worth mentioning here because sometimes mercy helps everyone involved to heal.

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.

– Saint Thomas Aquinas

Summary

Justice is fairness, doing the right thing even though it may not be the popular thing. To properly know how to proceed justly, we must have all of the facts. It’s also important to consider mercy to respect the dignity of people because mercy itself is sometimes justified.

What do you think? How have you handled being the hand of justice? Have you struggled with justice, either that which you imposed or that which was imposed upon you? How do you work mercy into the equation? Let us know in the comments!

He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

– Micah 6:8

Further Reading

• Medical XPress discusses a fascinating study by Harvard University in its article The Impossibility of Immorality: Study Suggests the Brain Views Immoral Acts as if they are Impossible. The study report itself is entitled Morality Constrains the Default Representation of What is Possible.
• The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman

Humilitas – humbleness; humility (Bee); lowness (position/rank); shortness; submissiveness

– Latin-Dictionary.net

Sidenote: Does anyone know what the “Bee” reference is up there next to humility? I couldn’t figure it out, so please let me know your thoughts on that annotation!

Other translations include humble, grounded, and “from the earth” as it is a derivative of the word humus which translates to earth, ground, or soil.

But What Does It Mean to Be Humble? What is Humility?

Humility – quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance

– Lexico

The word “low” here carries with it a negative connotation, but it’s not meant that way. Rather, the intent is to demolish the pedestal one may put oneself on – the pedestal for better or worse effect – to gather a realistic picture. Modesty isn’t about demeaning the self but about recognizing the value of others.

Humility… centers on low self-preoccupation.

– Wikipedia

So humility isn’t about depreciating yourself or thinking that you’re not enough. Rather, it’s about knowing that others have value. Or, as one evangelical puts it:

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

– Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life

How Is Humility Implemented?

The general notion is recognizing the inherent value in all humans regardless of who they are. Regardless of whether it’s one of the cool kids, someone you know in passing, or someone you prefer to avoid, every person inherently has dignity and should be treated with respect.

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

Albert Einstein
As attributed by his colleague Leopold Infeld in Quest: and Autobiography

To reiterate, this means you, too. We are called to not only treat others with respect, but ourselves as well. We human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, are worthy of dignity. As a result, we are called to treat others and ourselves well.

What Humility Is Not

Humility is an outward expression of an appropriate inner, or self regard, and is contrasted with humiliation which is an imposition… of shame upon a person.

– Wikipedia

We are not called to humiliate anyone – ourselves included. God doesn’t want any of His beloved children living in shame – including you, your obnoxious coworker, or even your grade school bully. (Yeah, that’s right – even them!) Instead, humility is to recognize that we’re all on equal footing as people, that God loves all of us equally, and that God wants all of us to play kindly with each other and return to Him.

Short Story on Humility

New England (and most of the United States) was treated to a hefty snow storm the past few days. In some parts of the country, the getting-to part of Thanksgiving feasts was delayed; in my region, the returning-to-normalcy was delayed. And it’s the first snow of the season that we expect to stick!

I drove back from my visit a day and a half early, then hunkered down in my room for the next… erhm, approximately 50 hours. (I left in short spurts, basically restroom and kitchen runs.) Last night, I decided that I was going to wake up early to clean the driveway. And then, it hit me: I’ll clean off all of the cars! I’ll make life so much easier on my housemates!

We got eighteen inches of powder. I was in the driveway within fifteen minutes of waking up – just enough time to make tea for when I came back inside – and shoveling away. Shovel, shovel, shovel. It’s a great work out and, other than the bending, I was enjoying it thoroughly.

I finish the driveway and run in for some water – not tea as my workout demands I consume something cool – and hear someone clearly concerned: she needs help. Nothing major on my part, just time consuming – driving her to an appointment. I help out with that, then get back to shoveling, working on the path to the driveway and a space for house pups. Just as I remembered that I had another car to clean off, I straighten my back, and it rebels.

Oooooof.

Nothing else is happening without a shower. So I break for a shower and breakfast, but I’m physically exhausted, so as much as the shower helped my back, my body still wants nothing to do with moving. The last car isn’t happening.

I keep thinking that it’s happening, but it’s clearly not. And that car, it just so happens, belonged to the person I asked to help with the pick-up of the person I dropped off because the appointment ran much longer than expected. And even when I was frustrated at having to ask for help, I forgot. And even if I hadn’t, I physically wouldn’t have been able to: I’d spent myself on everything else without the forethought of cleaning off the cars is probably more important than making sure the dogs have room to roam.

My friend didn’t expect me to clean off her car for her, but I expected it of myself. So when she was telling me that she forgot to account for time to clean off her car, I felt my ears droop because I should have done that. I spent two solid hours shoveling, and instead of being content with what I was able to do, I was thinking I should have done more.

Why? I’m not a super hero. Why didn’t I set a more realistic expectation of what I should have been able to do? Probably a mix of enthusiasm, the desire for a lofty goal, and pride. Thankfully, unbeknownst to her, my friend put it back in perspective in the way she relayed the situation as part of a larger scene with several moving variables.

Regardless, I’d have saved myself from a fair bit of self-frustration if I’d had the humility to simply set a more manageable goal, or even just to plan out the order of the work flow so the critical parts would still be complete even if I had to stop early.

Summary

Humility is about recognizing the value of others, not by demeaning ourselves, but by seeing each one of us as creatures of the Divine Creator, a beloved child of God. We are all worth dignity and respect, and we should take the time to recognize the value of others.

[A humble man] will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

– C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What do you think? How have you seen humility in yourself or others? Let us know in the comments!

Further Reading

• Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by Andrew Murray
  (The Kindle edition is free as of the time of this writing!)
• Confident Humility: Becoming Your Full Self Without Becoming Full of Yourself by Dan Kent
• Humility Rules: Saint Benedict’s Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem by J. Augustine Wetta O.S.B.
• Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership by John Dickson

Superbia – pride; insolence; arrogance; haughtiness

– WordHippo

Pride is often considered the most dangerous of the deadly sins because it easily leads to any (or all) of the others. But what is it? Can we have good, fuzzy feelings about our accomplishments without being sinful?

What Constitutes the Deadly Sin of Pride?

Pride is the excessive love of one’s own excellence.

– New Advent

Just as we discussed earlier with respect to lust, pride is sinful when it’s in excess. Appreciating your own self-worth is fine, but it should be done in moderation and with due respect to the One who made you. You are extraordinarily valuable and loved; so is everyone else God created. Recognize your own worth, but keep it in check.

Most of us have met these people or those who won’t say it aloud but they make you feel like you’re lesser because they’re greater. Some people do mean it. Heuristically, however, I’ve found that eager confidence often comes off as hubris, so reminder: we should reflect on our own actions, or help friends understand how they come across if they ask, but it’s improper to condemn the actions of others because we don’t know their minds.

Pride: the Gateway Sin

Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.

– Proverbs 16:18

– Wait Up: If It’s the Worst Sin, Why’s It In the Middle?

Good question! Pride falls in the middle of this series because I ordered it based on the virtues, not on the sins. Oddly enough, the baddest sins aren’t directly tied to the goodest virtues. I hypothesize that this is because even the slightest virtue can handle the gravest depravity because virtue is with God – the same way it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to move mountains.

– How Does Hubris Lead to Destruction?

Pride is a gateway to the other sins. By thinking so much of ourselves, we may think ourselves invincible. In thinking that nothing can harm us, we may do things we shouldn’t do – like sin. It goes back to original sin entering the world in Genesis: Eve ate the apple because she thought she knew better than God.

– Line Drawn Between Hubris and Reason

We may think that we know what’s best for ourselves, better than our friends, our family, our wisest advisors, and even God Himself.

Sometimes we do know better than the advice offered; people know about different things based on the experiences they’ve had. For example, I have a dear friend whom I would delightedly take investment advice from as he’s an enthusiastic hobbyist who does rather well for himself; however, I probably wouldn’t ask for marriage advice as he’s not married. That’s not pride; that’s a reasoned assessment of skill.

A clear maneuver of pride would be dismissing his investment wisdom out of hand because I know better simply because I’m me. He’s done extensive research over years; I’ve read Little Book of Bull Moves circa 2010. The book was a great introduction, but it’s an introduction, and it’s almost a decade old. (This is quite dated for investment advice when considering milliseconds matter to the point one author wrote a novel about it.) Suffice to say, I’m no expert.

But if I’m all about myself and I can’t be wrong, that won’t matter. I could lose every penny I ever had investing poorly and it wouldn’t be my fault, it’d be the fault of the market, or bad luck, or malfeasance. If I’m proud, the problem can’t be me – perish the thought! – because I’m too awesome to make a mistake. But I lost so much! Someone must be to blame!

… And then anger sets in. And probably envy aimed at whomever got away with my money. And greed was likely in the mix when making the original decision.

Oh. Look: that’s easily three more deadly sins.

Is Self-Harm the Only Problem with Pride?

– No Room at the Inn

Unfortunately not.

Therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? We’re called to love God and to love His creation, but pride prevents us from doing just that because there’s no more room – because we don’t make space and time in our lives to love others. Pride is a problem because there’s no love left for God or neighbor.

This harkens back to our discussion on envy. God is a jealous god, and He wants our love both for Himself and for His creatures. Sinful pride prevents us from loving others, and loving others constitutes the first and second new commands Jesus gave to us (as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

– Where is Pride in the Bible?

Pride prevents us from doing what we are called to do – to love God and love each other. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Bible has a few choice things to say about the topic. Specifically, God calls us to cast off our pride and return to Him. Check it out:

God abases the proud,
but he saves the lowly.

– Job 22:29

Again:

Toward the scorners he is scornful,
but to the humble he shows favor.

– Proverbs 3:34

And again:

He gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

– James 4:6-7, 10

– Ray of Hope

If we accept that pride is a problem, how do we identify it in our own lives? If pride has been the way we’ve been operating for years, how can we even tell what it is? We can ask friends for help, but even they won’t know for certain.

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down, below the surface of the average conscience, a still, small voice says to us, “Something is out of tune. ”

– Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss Analytical Psychologist

While others may be able to lend a helping hand to get you started, they can’t determine anything for you. Self-reflection and listening to your inner guiding tuning fork is the only (non-divine interventionist) way of figuring out if pride is getting in the way.

Summary

Pride is self-love excessive to the point of blocking others out. It isn’t being content with work we completed or being excited at executing a great performance; rather, pride is a problem when it hinders our lives, our relationships with others, and our obligations. Like anger, it can trigger other sins and set off a chain of events.

Have you had any run-ins with pride recently? How to you keep yourself in check, or reign yourself back in once you’ve realized you overstepped? Let me know in the comments!

Further Reading

• New Advent explains pride; the entry is both helpful, albeit rather difficult to read through (mostly for lack of paragraphing).
• Another, simpler resource is the Got Questions article about pride.