You can't DO humble...

There are many things that I need to work on as I grow stronger in my faith. First, let me clarify that by my effort to be strong in faith has nothing do to with the strength of my beliefs in The Holy Trinity or Jesus' sacrifice for mankind, but rather it is a stronger faith in myself that I am living up to God's will and His plans for me to be a better Christian. One big step I made was about two years ago when I went to Kingston, Jamaica to work for a week with Missionaries of the Poor. While these wonderful men that carry on the work of Christ are well equipped spiritually for the efforts they willingly put in each day,there are many financial burdens that can be alleviated by all of us to help this Order reach out to more and more of Jamaica's sick, frail and forgotten of all ages. This mission trip opened my eyes and my heart more than I can fathom. I truly look at the poor and homeless within my own city with a much more sympathetic eye.

Moving on to my topic. While I have pondered my own level of humility (granted, I had no problem diving in to do the work of the Brothers of MOP only because of the power of the Holy Spirit working within me and through me), I keep assessing where I think I am and how far I still have to go while still striking a balance with my responsibilities as a husband, a father and an employee. There even have been signs to guide me...while getting my hair cut (Great Clips) at a location I have never been to, in a part of the city I have never visited, on the mirror of the hair stylist was the statement, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less." I will add WOW here as this is a great point to ponder. I have come up with my own definition which is, "Humility is the involuntary act of helping others." The purpose of my definition is to remind me that you can't DO humble, you have to BE humble for it to be truly genuine.

Now, the twist is that I still have to think of ways to be humble which sounds like "doing" humble, but the difference is when someone does not exhibit something naturally, then he or she has to be trained or train himself or herself. Eventually, the trained response becomes second nature. More and more, I find my offers to assist others to just roll off my tongue without a concern of what I was planning to do next. The act or offer of helping supercedes whatever I had originally planned to do next.

A couple of days ago on a Friday, I stopped at the local Super-Wal-Mart to grab some Milo's Iced Tea (good stuff). And while waiting in line, I noticed a young lady with two kids (one in a car-seat carrier and the other asleep in a second cart she had pulled close). Now math teaches me that one adult plus two grocery/kid laden carts across a parking lot equals an uneasily managed effort when the day has already extracted 8-10 hours of work effort from you. Without thinking, I made the involuntary offer to help this lady get to her car. She shyly accepted my offer and was quite apologetic that the cashier was taking a bit longer than expedted to ring up her purchases.

On the way to her car, she mentioned that she works 7 days a week and has no family here. She was very appreciative for the help. Once at her car, I helped her load her bags at which time she placed a bag next to my two jugs of iced tea. I originally assumed that she mistaken thought it was one of my bags...so I proceeded to put it in her car. She quickly picked up this particular bag and said that it was for me (it had a gallon of milk, box of cereal and a dozen eggs) for helping her. We spent the next several seconds debating that I did not want a reward and her insisting that I must take it, that I am "a good man" as she says. I did not want to say that I felt she needed the groceries more than me, for that would be judgmental and not my role in life (another blog for another day). She added that she has a business (which is what I interpreted as her being of financial comfort to do without some cereal, milk and eggs on this trip). I could see in hers eyes the genuine look of someone needing the kind gesture and wanting to offer sincere thanks for someone having answered her prayer. I graciously accepted the bag with the reminder that it really wasn't necessary.

I am thankful that even for an instance I could be the hands of Christ reaching out to another. Humility is its own reward...it is how Christ entered and left this world. The reward of helping and the spiritual lift has nothing to do with eggs or cereal or milk.