HUMILITY MONTH: DAY 17: “Humility has been defined as the courage of truth applied to ourselves in all its rigor and with all its consequences.” – Fr. Frances Poulain
I like the phrase “courage of truth.” It IS courageous to live with the truth. It is so simple to be nicey-nicey and gloss over the truth about life.
Most of us are drugged and live in a stupor of false beliefs and old ideas. Long after we stop drinking and using, we continue to pacify ourselves with the notion(s) that others are the problem. It is their negative energy, their behaviors, their thinking, their old ideas that are the problem.
Yeah, not so much. We are where we are. If something is upsetting us, we need to seek and live with the truth. This takes courage in a world where stupor and being drugged are the ideal.
We are so lazy when it comes to doing anything about our negative thinking and ways of living. Our inability to accept exactly who we are and take responsibility for the consequences of the things we believe and do. And living in the truth is not appealing to anyone. We want to make others responsible, so we can remain victims. We want others to take care of us, tell us what to do and how to do it, keep us first and foremost in their thoughts so we can cruise through life.
It is, after all, the American way. Our cultural laziness creates more problems than solutions for life. It is not okay for us to be living in dishonesty and treachery. And yet, we have created this in massive amounts. If someone upsets another person, chances are that they may just shoot you. What is needed is a giant dose of spiritual principles, applied to each person, one at a time, one day at a time.
We are a broken social organism. The idea that others are here to take care of us or please us in any way is incredibly dysfunctional. And it shows!
When we begin to take the truth, the real truth of who we are and apply it “to ourselves in all its rigor and with all its consequences,” we will have transcended not only our own addiction but have made some strides in having one less addict running around in this culture with that sense of laziness and entitlement. Recovery is a global thing. And we can change this world by changing our way of thinking and being and living. Just for ourselves, we begin to shift the dynamic of the world we inhabit in good and positive ways.
