True Humility

A humble man is not disturbed by praise. Since he is no longer concerned with himself, and since he knows where the good that is in him comes from, he does not refuse praise, because it belongs to the God he loves, and in receiving it, he keeps nothing for himself but gives it all, with great joy, to his God.

If you were truly humble you would not bother about yourself at all. Why should you? You would only be concerned with God and with His will and with the objective order of things and values as they are, and not as your own selfishness wants them to be. Consequently, you would have no illusions to defend. Your movements would be free. You would not need to be hampered with excuses which are really only framed to defend you against the accusation of pride – as if your humility depended on what other people thought of you! A humble man can do great things with an uncommon perfection because he is no longer concerned about incidentals, like his own interests and his own reputation, and therefore he no longer needs to waste his efforts in defending them. ~ Thomas Merton, the New Seeds of Contemplation

How true! There have been many times in the past in which I have turned down invitations to lead and turned praise away so as to look humble and to avoid accusations of pride. I was more concerned about what people thought about me rather than obeying God’s will. But this is not true humility because I am still so full of myself. A truly humble person would not be so concerned about what others think because He would know that all the praise belongs to God, and wouldn’t mind being accused of anything. He would be more concerned with obeying God rather than defending himself and his own reputation.