Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches…..” (John 15:5). Paul said, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Branches are humble vessels connecting source with fruit, content with being used without esteem.
Humility means “the state of being humble.” Both it and humble have their origin in the Latin word humilis, meaning “low.”
Here are some examples of humility in use:
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
— Proverbs 11:2
Who has not gazed at the night sky, mouth slightly agape? The experience is so common, its effects so uniform, that a standard vocabulary has evolved to describe it. Invariably we speak of the profound humility we feel before the enormity of the universe. We are as bits of dust in a spectacle whose scope beggars the imagination, whose secrets make a mockery of reason.
— Edwin Dobb, Harper’s, February 1995
If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility. A humble boss understands that there are things he doesn’t know. He listens: not only to the other bigwigs in Davos, but also to the kind of people who don’t get invited, such as his customers.
—The Economist, 26 Jan. 2013
For many, the lowness in both humility and humble is something worth cultivating.
Without humility any fruit in our lives is artificial, incapable of nourishing or regenerating and always self serving.
“The humble shall be exalted and the exalted shall be humbled.” (Luke 14:11)
