Embracing True Humility: Freedom Through Self-Forgetfulness

C.S. Lewis wrote in his wonderful book screw tip letters about this process of humility and old uncle screw tape writes my dear wormwood uh wormwood's human being the patient that he was in charge of had come back to god had repented from a time of drifting away and this is what screwtape writes the most alarming thing in your last account of your patient is he's making none of those confident resolutions that marks his original conversions no more lamish stupid little gnats no more lavish promises of perpetual virtue i gather not even the expectation of an endowment of grace for life but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation this is very bad [00:01:06]

And then lewis goes on i see only one thing to do at the moment your patient has become humble have you drawn his attention to the fact and then this profound insight all virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them this is especially true of humility and this is part of what we're learning together about spiritual life there is this very interesting paradox that deep awareness is very helpful if i'm wrestling with something negative like to become aware oh this is me being fearful or oh this is me being resentful helps me get some distance from it on the other hand to say oh this is me being humble to become self-conscious about virtues actually makes it harder for them to be sustained for us to live in them [00:01:54]

Now one of the things that happens to human beings when we live with a sense of the need to accomplish or achieve or to look strong and that's the way that our world works is that our actual life goes in the opposite direction roger morton has written that in organizations when they lack humility they're on a path to dissent and the last two stages of this he says are the deterioration of needed feedback i'm no longer as a leader willing to listen to what other people need to tell me about what i'm doing wrong and then along with that the proliferation of defensiveness defensiveness is the opposite of humility it is an unwillingness to be coached by other people ultimately it is an unwillingness to learn and at the core it's an unwillingness to surrender [00:03:41]

One of the things that we've talked about for many many months is that spiritual life really begins with the recognition i can't and this is at the core of humility humility in a very deep way is really just the recognition of reality i can't i can't be the person i want to be i can't be as smart or as strong or as attractive or as successful or whatever it is as my ego tells me i have to be in order i can't i can't but there is one who can i think i'll let him i will surrender to him and this is why humility is simply at the deepest level just the recognition of reality and that's why there's nothing extraordinary about it [00:04:40]

Old uncle screw tape goes on there's other profitable ways of fixing his attention on the virtue of humility by this virtue as by all the others our enemy wants to turn the man's attention away from self to him to god and then to our neighbors old screw tape writes all the objection and self-hatred are designed in the long run solely for this end unless they attain this end they do us little harm and they may even do us good if they keep the man concerned with himself and above all if self-contempt which if i confuse humility for self-contempt can be made the starting point for the contempt of other selves and thus for gloom cynicism and cruelty [00:05:36]

Humility is not trying to think less of my abilities or my talents it's simply to think about myself less and to be aware of god and his goodness and the goodness of other human beings humility is really about freedom and that's why it is so worth asking for let's take a moment ask for right now god now as i walk through this day would you liberate me from my concern about myself my appearance my achievements would you deliver me from vanity keep me from comparing myself to other people help me to be of service to you and to them i pray this in jesus name amen [00:09:33]

The enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he would design the best cathedral in the world and know it to be the best and rejoice in the fact without being any more or less or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another the enemy wants him in the end to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents or in a sunrise or an elephant or a waterfall he wants each man in the long run to be able to recognize all creatures even himself as glorious and excellent things [00:08:11]

Humility is opposed to this constant sense that we have of i got to compare myself to other people and that's where i develop a sense of worth there's an old old rabbinic story about how we can compete even in our humility a rabbi goes into the place of worship and falls on his knees and says oh god i'm nothing i am nothing i am nothing and the cantor sees the rabbi doing that figures is a good idea so he drops to his knees oh god i'm nothing i'm nothing i'm nothing and then the janitor guy at the low end of the status totem pole falls to his knees oh god i'm nothing i'm nothing i'm nothing and the cantor says to the rabbi look who thinks he's nothing [00:09:33]

Humility makes a life of freedom possible we're in this series together passage to wisdom how are you doing on the humility front c.s lewis wrote in his wonderful book screw tip letters about this process of humility and old uncle screw tape writes my dear wormwood uh wormwood's human being the patient that he was in charge of had come back to god had repented from a time of drifting away and this is what screwtape writes the most alarming thing in your last account of your patient is he's making none of those confident resolutions that marks his original conversions no more lamish stupid little gnats no more lavish promises of perpetual virtue [00:00:57]

And then lewis goes on i see only one thing to do at the moment your patient has become humble have you drawn his attention to the fact and then this profound insight all virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them this is especially true of humility and this is part of what we're learning together about spiritual life there is this very interesting paradox that deep awareness is very helpful if i'm wrestling with something negative like to become aware oh this is me being fearful or oh this is me being resentful helps me get some distance from it on the other hand to say oh this is me being humble to become self-conscious about virtues actually makes it harder for them to be sustained for us to live in them [00:01:54]

Now one of the things that happens to human beings when we live with a sense of the need to accomplish or achieve or to look strong and that's the way that our world works is that our actual life goes in the opposite direction roger morton has written that in organizations when they lack humility they're on a path to dissent and the last two stages of this he says are the deterioration of needed feedback i'm no longer as a leader willing to listen to what other people need to tell me about what i'm doing wrong and then along with that the proliferation of defensiveness defensiveness is the opposite of humility it is an unwillingness to be coached by other people ultimately it is an unwillingness to learn and at the core it's an unwillingness to surrender [00:03:41]

One of the things that we've talked about for many many months is that spiritual life really begins with the recognition i can't and this is at the core of humility humility in a very deep way is really just the recognition of reality i can't i can't be the person i want to be i can't be as smart or as strong or as attractive or as successful or whatever it is as my ego tells me i have to be in order i can't i can't but there is one who can i think i'll let him i will surrender to him and this is why humility is simply at the deepest level just the recognition of reality and that's why there's nothing extraordinary about it [00:04:40]