Perfect Humility?

I’m sure, for instance, that I ought to seek out the finest definition of humility that is possible for me to envision. This definition doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect --- I am only asked to try. Suppose I choose one like this: “Perfect humility would be a state of complete freedom from myself, freedom from all the claims that my defects of character now lay so heavily upon me. Perfect humility would be a full willingness, in all times and places, to find and do the will of god.”

AS BILL SEES IT, pp. 49-50
Bill W.

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     I mistook humility for a constant state of groveling. I thought that it was always admitting I was imperfect even though I believed I was better than most, or, so very much less than those I held in high esteem. Humility, I have found, is a different critter entirely. Bill states earlier that “… Perfectionists, they say, are either full of conceit because they fancy they have reached some impossible goal, or else they are swamped in self-condemnation because they have not done so.” I have noted that there is a more pathetic form of humility and that is the other side of the coin of false-pride. False-humility is just another aspect of being unwilling to see things as they really are. I have learned that, through applying self-examination combined with the regular practice of meditation, it is akin to looking into one of those magnifying mirrors that show every wrinkle and blemish as well as the beauty in the reflection. Humility comes of being able to accept what I see exactly as I am and to act accordingly.

     It is a bonus to seek the ability to love more so than to be loved… to comfort than to be comforted… to understand than to be understood. This is the plan of the day for me or P.O.D. for you military folks… my marching orders, if you will.

geo

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