The most colorful characters I’ve ever known are people I’ve met in recovery. Every one has a story, and so many of stories are hilarious. Also sad and very pathetic. I can relate to them all. But by the time you have some sober time under your belt and the mental fog has lifted, most people in recovery can look back at drunken shenanigans and laugh. And thank God they’re alive.🙏🏽 Indeed, a lot of boisterous laughter is often heard coming from the rooms of recovery.🙏🏽
One of those characters texted yesterday to say he was celebrating his 36th sobriety birthday—meaning that he’d not had a drink of alcohol for 36 years!🙏🏽—and it got me thinking of all the sobriety birthday celebrations I’ve been blessed to witness over the years.🙏🏽 Most of them follow the same format: a good friend gives some sort of lengthy introduction and then the birthday person says a few words. Never has one bragged about the accomplishment being all theirs and the result of something they did; on the contrary, nearly all gave glory and gratitude to God. Without Him, they admit, they wouldn’t have been able to do it. This is humility in action.
I learned about humility in the rooms of recovery–what it was and what it wasn’t–and in doing so, I had to admit just how self-centered and preoccupied with myself I’d been all my life. And still would be if I didn’t hold myself accountable.
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less,” so wrote C. S. Lewis, and he was right. No one respects a door mat. Humility is about seeing oneself as he truly is–nothing more, nothing less.🙏🏽 Humility is about being “right-sized.”🙏🏽 Humility is respectful and considerate of others.🙏🏽 Humility is devoid of arrogance, superiority, pride, conceit, or self-aggrandizement.🙏🏽 Humility is quiet self-assuredness and confidence.🙏🏽 Humility just might be the secret ingredient to being a part of something instead of being apart from it!🙏🏽
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. ~James 4:10
