Wisdom of Humility 

   Wow! I am so humble! In other words, I am so full of pride because I am so humble.   

   With me so far? 

   Truthfully, pride was never a problem, me being the youngest and smallest and shyest and simple-minded boy in my whole world. I couldn't be humble either, because I didn't even know the word. My only claim as a young man was to be fairly good at baseball, and later, softball. Couldn't get enough of it. 

   Journalist Sophia Lee, 33, was the smartest teenager, with leadership ability and choices of internships at big publications. Her "ego was as inflated as a hot air balloon."

   Then she began - "to struggle with anorexia, which exposed my insecurities and vanities and brought me to my knees. I realized I had nothing ... that I am more helpless and foolish than the person most contemptuous in my eyes." 

   Only at that point did she realize the measureless grace, love and mercy of God.  

   But, after recovering, she again began to measure herself by her own achievements. How impatient she was, selfish, conceited, judgmental and apt to compare. She prayed for wisdom, but found herself wanting wisdom for the wrong reasons - to be better than others.

   Like Paul, who wrote, "Not that I have already obtained..." she now understands "wisdom that comes from a humble spirit that longs to love and serve others, to do justice and love kindness." "There's a holy discontentment within me," she says, "a recognition that I need less of me and more of Christ." 

   She would tell her teenaged self: Be humble. "When you're feeling self-righteous, be humble," Lee writes. "Humility doesn't mean putting yourself down. It means striving to be like Christ who already lives in you." 

       Jimmy