Humility
Fits me funny—
Like a suit
I would not have
Picked out for myself.
But I trust my tailor.
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Note: I have certainly progressed over the years since I penned this thought in 1998 or so. I do not find humility so awkward in principle now. Instead, I see periodic glimpses of my pride and try to analyze my own behavior accordingly—though surely I am not yet yielded to what is true and good in every way, even where I may like to think I am! Indeed, even upon re-reading this very note today (6 October 2022), I cringed at a couple of places that needed to be reworded to account for the fact that putting on the humility suit was not a one-and-done thing, but is still a work in progress! It would seem that humility is a daily need that cannot be settled once and for all, but is best tended to daily. Like so many other things, I am reminded that it’s best understood as a “long game”.
At the time I wrote this poem, I was in a controlling church where I was often accused of “being prideful”, primary as a means of shutting down my critical thought processes. This is not to say that I was never proud at that time, but that the rebukes I got for it were often offered insincerely and for ulterior motives. That served to confuse the issue even more, for I was ever being told that I “think too much” when the exact opposite was the truth! Trying to “be humble”, therefore, by “not thinking too much” is a fool’s errand!
