Humility

     From my experience, if I had to label the years from age 40 to 50, I would call them "The Reality Years."  By this time you have made a lot of choices, chased a few dreams, and have laid a foundation for your life.  Then the storms of life start to come.  For some reason we are often shocked by them and wonder why they are only happening to us.  As I approach 50, I have learned to expect the unexpected.  I have learned that no one is exempt from the storms of life, and I have also prayed to have humility in the midst of it.
     In Proverbs 11:2 it says, "Be humble."  To quote Andrew Murray, "The truest form of strength lies in humility.  Here is a good definition of what it means to be humble, 'Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us.  It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised.  It is to have a blessed place in the Lord where we can go and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble.'"
     In the last month I have encountered friends suffering from physical illness, mental illness, financial difficulties, divorce and loss of a loved one.  Tonight I was reading the book Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud and was struck by the following passage, "People feel cared about, and trust is built, when they know that we have a genuine interest in knowing them, knowing about them, and having what we know matter."
     In the midst of a troubled world, may we grow in humility as we face our own struggles and grow in grace as we see the struggles of others.