Pride Killer: Why Humility Always Wins

There’s something you should know about me: I make mistakes.

Not a few, not several…but a lot. Why I have no problem admitting this…I don’t know.

Granted, I count it all joy, yet this doesn’t mean I enjoy confessing weakness. In fact, there have been [many] times I’ve shadowed it under the false comfort of ‘closed’ issues staying closed issues.

Yet, after digesting one of the worst weeks of 2016, I can honestly say while it hurts to fall down, there’s gain in the rise up.

‘Cause truth is: a good leader best learns from his failure not by how he stays ahead of it, but by how he responds to it.

Permit me to unpack…

When we talk about leaders doing leader things, it makes sense those things remain above reproach and reproof. I think we can all agree there.

Yet, given leaders are human beings too, it’s important to remember their mistakes are just as inevitable. Thus, how leaders handle adversity, setbacks, and judgment errors are worth discussion.

In my ministerial role, there are times a protective heart can become over-protective if offense (real or perceived) and presumption allows trust to detach from submission.  Knowing my weakness, I understand if I start to feel overzealous and start to self-stitch the evidences of a problem (real or perceived), I can get off track in a hurry.

In these moments, I find the absolute, single-best way to realign is humility.

Now, humility is one of my favorite topics because it’s actually one of my strong points, especially in the wake of a dilemma. Growing up, I wasn’t always teachable, but once I started integrating humility into relational and circumstantial troubleshooting, maturing in meekness became remarkably effortless. It just clicked into gear the more I realized I needed forgiveness on a daily basis.

In the case of my most recent shortcoming, I overstepped a boundary in my attempt to establish one and after processing my lapse in judgment, I realized a) in order to receive grace I had to throw myself at the mercy of God and b) the best way to get there was through humility.

After embracing these two steps, it wasn’t long before I went to my supervisor, repented, and set up a series of meetings to apologize to anyone I may have hurt, offended, or confused. No question it was a liberating yet exhausting process. While there was certainly an emotional toll, the presence of humility ultimately eroded any pre-existing offense in turn funneling peace into places where it hadn’t been in several years.

My point in sharing this is…

1. Humility is both a precious gift but also a powerful weapon and an exit strategy for those tempted to take reconciliation into their own hands. Seriously…if pride (or any similar derivative) is like being locked out of your car, humility is the wire hanger that breaks the jam and gets you back to where you need to be.

2. There will be times when we think we’ve got it, only to find we’ve lost it. Thankfully, when we receive grace and apply humility, we become more concerned about what is right than who is wrong. In other words, by dying to our right to be right, we essentially find the right way to the right path. That’s the power of humility in action.

Anywho, hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I have a few more blogs on the backburner and will look to post some more in the weeks ahead.

‘Til then, stay humble, my friends.

~ CF

Photo creds: www.onmounthoreb.com & chiefsplanet.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.