Article July 7, 1986 Issue

Egotism? Or the humility that heals?

KIRT CROCKETT

I still laugh when I recall talking to a little girl I once met; she had an answer for everything! During our conversation I posed several questions for which there were no plausible answers. My goal was to elicit from her just one "I don't know." I finally gave up. She believed she knew it all.

This belief is not limited to children. For example, one might diligently work to gain an academic degree or special experience in a field. And he or she can be justifiably proud of this accomplishment. But degrees or extensive experience in a particular field sometimes lead people to believe that they know all the answers. There's where the problem lies!

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, puts it rather bluntly when she writes: "Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create."^{Science and Health, p. 263.} This, in fact, describes my outlook some time ago, before I learned an important spiritual lesson about humility.