A Humble Reputation
Humility. How do you define it?
Humility.
Humility is defined as “freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble.”
People talk about humility a lot but really don’t practice it often.
Usually, I work as a project manager, executive assistant, etc. and work with virtually every department in the office.
Lately, we have received an influx of orders and for a large number of devices.
As a lot of the staff has been staying home due to the pandemic, I’ve been spending a good amount of time in the warehouse assisting the production and shipping teams. For the past few months, there’s been a “skeleton crew” if you could call it that so they have needed some more support at times.
Now, we’ve got a number of people back in the warehouse and our workforce is returning to the level that it was at before the shelter-in-places began to take effect.
Now, I’m glad to help out and I’m grateful that I have the ability to help out.
So I’m walking down there and our Director of Manufacturing is there chatting with a few colleagues.
He goes, “Oh! By the way, Harrison, congratulations! This guy is so humble that he didn’t even tell us he got his MBA. Looks at the people he’s speaking with and he goes, Harrison has his MBA! He’s the smartest person in the room now.”
I just respond, “Well, thank you! I graduated a few weeks ago and am glad to have it completed.”
“What does a person look like who learns to live one day at a time with a backdrop of eternity in view?” — Ravi…medium.com
It’s a difficult matter for many people (including myself) to be humble in practice.
Many of us know what we would describe humility as and we might even know what humbleness looks like for other people.
Humility in Practice
I really like the way that Robert Morris put this into practice. He talks about the difference between pride, poverty, and gratitude. Gratitude can also be looked at as humility in this context. Robert writes the following:
Here are some tests to help you discern the difference between pride, poverty, and gratitude:
When you think about your situation in life…
Pride says, “I deserve more!”
Poverty says, “I should feel guilty.”
Gratitude (humility) says, “Thank you!” (Gratitude is an attitude of thankfulness that always acknowledges God’s provision.)
When someone says, “Wow, you have a nice house!”
Pride says, “We were going to build a bigger one.”
Poverty says, “It was a foreclosure.”
Gratitude (humility) says, “Thank you. The Lord has blessed us!”
When someone says, “That’s a nice suit!”
Pride says, “It’s tailor-made.”
Poverty says, “It was half price.”
Gratitude (humility) says, “Thank you!”
When someone says, “That’s a nice car!”
Pride says, “I’ve got three of them!”
Poverty says, “It’s a company car.”
Gratitude (humility) says, “Thank you!”
Pride wants people to think that we paid more. Poverty wants people to think that we paid less. Gratitude doesn’t care what people think; it only cares what God thinks! How about just telling the truth? When someone remarks about something you exercise stewardship over, just tell the truth and be grateful.
What are you living for?
Why?
We are not to seek success in the eyes of the world but rather to seek success in the eyes of God. There’s a HUGE difference. One has ETERNAL consequences and that’s not something that I’m going to take lightly.
When we consider what we are doing in this life we had better take a look inward.
We need to identify what is moving our hearts. Why are we acting and reacting how we are? Is that what we should be doing? Maybe. Maybe not.
“Worry about your character, not your reputation. Your character is who you are. Your reputation is who people think you are.”
