'To Bless All Mankind' February 12, 2018 Issue

Leading with humility

Keith S. Collins

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 2017.

It’s tempting to buy into the common belief that having a high opinion of oneself is the route to accomplishing great things. But the greatest leader of all time, Christ Jesus, whose life and teachings have healed countless people and inspired billions to become Christians, said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). It’s worth thinking through how meekness (or humility, the term used more today) carries such power.

Humility acknowledges that we draw our capacities from a source other than ourselves. Jesus understood that source to be God. “I can of mine own self do nothing,” he said (John 5:30). In his humble acknowledgment of God as his source of strength and intelligence, Jesus expressed the Christ, God’s eternal message of love and truth to humanity, with supreme clarity and authority. And because of his spiritual clarity, he was able to lead the way to an understanding of God as the loving Father and Mother of all, an understanding that transforms lives. We can all turn to and follow this same Christly light, which opens the way to the realization that health and harmony are God’s will for us and everyone because the true identity of each of us is God’s spiritual reflection.

Humility is sometimes misunderstood as weakness and having a low view of one’s importance. No wonder people often shy from the word! But real humility does not include anything demeaning. Not only did Jesus understand his own unique identity as the Son of God, he taught that we are all God’s children—spiritual, perfect, of infinite importance to the divine Father-Mother. Being humble means rising to see ourselves and everyone as spiritually reflecting the power and love of God—and thinking and acting accordingly.

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