Enforced Humility

I have such problems with humility.

Not the humility that I self impose, of course.  No, that is something that never seems to be an issue.  The conscious setting aside of one for the betterment of another may sometimes be difficult, but there is a sense of the rightness of  what you are doing.

No, the humility I have problems with is the humility imposed by others.  The humility that comes from other seeing the position as they see - perhaps rightly as it is.  The realization, however painful, that in fact your position is really what it is and you really are who you are, at least in the eyes of certain situations.

It is the realization that you are a doer, not a planner.  That you are here to do smaller parts of larger things - and seemingly most especially not the parts that get the reference and recognition.  That people in positions above you may not view things as a participatory event but really as a top down situation where your job is to do what you do - and shut up about it.

I have made the reference before to my position in life being considered by most to be that of an automatic transmission:  always functioning, always quiet, just there.  I am realizing that for a lot of people that is how they tend to view other people a lot in general.

And this is where the humility comes in.  Even in these situations, I am called to be humble: not lashing out, not angry, not grumpy.  Recognized and rewarded or not, I called to work and serve.  And be humble.

Even when it is enforced.