Here’s my dilemma of the moment, or at least one I’m grappling with during these last days at the cottage. Most everything I read tells me that there is a direct corollary between self-love and one’s love for others; the more you love yourself, the more you will love others; love your neighbor as yourself. Fine; I get that. But then I read about humility; walk humbly with God, don’t exalt yourself; compassion is gained through weakness. Fine; I get that, too, at least in theory. The challenge is to integrate the two and live them out.
Being a fortunate and confident person, I don’t have a very good handle on humility. I grapple with vainglory—I am a child of God, and God has especially chosen ME. That pops up as a little sin of mine. I don’t think the answer is to beat myself up, but I find that praying for myself is humbling and brings a necessary balance to my call to pray for others. We’re all in this together. I have a lot of stuff to work on. Whatever good that befalls me is grace. Thanks be to God.
Being a fortunate and confident person, I don’t have a very good handle on humility. I grapple with vainglory—I am a child of God, and God has especially chosen ME. That pops up as a little sin of mine. I don’t think the answer is to beat myself up, but I find that praying for myself is humbling and brings a necessary balance to my call to pray for others. We’re all in this together. I have a lot of stuff to work on. Whatever good that befalls me is grace. Thanks be to God.
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