From the work in progress Life: A Book About Learning to Live
By Jim Rosemergy
The greater the humility, the greater the grace of God.
Why won’t God help me? Nearly every human being has asked this question, but it reveals only a portion of our thoughts. What we really want to know is: God, why won’t You do what I want You to do? I’d do it myself if I could, but I can’t; I’ve tried. So I ask, why won’t You do what I want You to do? It has been years since I’ve asked for any help. After all, I’ve been able to do it on my own…until now. The question makes a statement. God, you’re my last chance. I’ve tried everything I know to try.
As painful as powerlessness is, it humbles us, and brings us to the trailhead of true power, for through humility divine forces are released into the world. The questions we ask and the statements we make fail to cover our cry of inadequacy, I can’t do it myself. How odd it is that nearly every spiritual giant of every age makes a similar statement—I of myself can do nothing.
This is the voice of humility. We speak with this voice because life has brought us to our knees and from this humble position we gasp, I can’t do it myself, or we can be awed by life and realize how little we can do by ourselves. Either path is acceptable, for each bring us face to face with a universal law of humility. “…for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”1
Humility’s gift is that it invites grace into our lives and into the world. In truth, the greater our humility, the greater the grace of God. The wonder of humility is that it is a consciousness through which the presence and power of God can do Its work. The genius of the Creator is that we can humble ourselves and become avenues for the expression of spiritual forces, or through life’s circumstances, we can be humbled. However, let us take a careful look at the law of humility. Exaltation or the expression of God’s wonder in our lives comes not when we are humbled, because that happens to all of us from time to time, but when we humble ourselves.
It is not enough that we feel powerless. Personal powerlessness only means that humility is near. It is for us to take the next step and humble ourselves. We can cry out, “I of myself can do nothing,” but let us also release our expectations of the way things must be. God’s grace takes us back to mystery because we who are humble do not know what is best for ourselves or for others. We simply trust. We enter the darkness where faith is born, and when the seed sprouts and grows, we give thanks for the fruit that appears as our conviction that we are not alone and that spiritual forces are real.
1 Lk. 18:14.