Humility is a means to connection, not perfection.
It’s tough to admit I’m wrong. It’s embarrassing to admit a secret sin. It’s difficult to take responsibility for my flawed behavior. It’s one thing to pray about it, but it’s another thing to confess to the human(s) I’ve affected.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
My former understanding of Bible quotes like that was that humbling myself would have two primary payoffs:
1) I wouldn’t fail the same way again and
2) God would, eventually, make me look good.
I still think both of those are true effects of humility. But when I repeat a failure, humbling myself is double difficult. It’s not fun to say, “Hey, I made this choice and hurt the both of us,” but it’s even worse to have to say, “Hey, I made this choice again.” I guess that’s harder for me because it feels like I’ve out-failed the promises of humility.
But I think I’ve been missing the most valuable meaning of “and he will exalt you.”
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