July 11 - Wanting Humility

Humility isn't something to survive. It's something to want — and there's no better proof of that than getting called out for your own homework mistake right before the mic turns on. Everything changes when humility becomes something I want, not something I resist. We open with Psalm 51:6 — behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom — a favorite verse, tattooed in a circle around a cross. The comfort in it: this work was never meant to be done alone. In the Methodist tradition, it's called sanctifying grace — the slow forming of a person back into the image they were created to be, one honest day at a time. The 12&12's page 58 definition anchors the discussion: humility as a clear recognition of what and who we really are, followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be. Big Book page 64 follows — searching out the flaws in our own makeup that caused our failure, and the honest admission that most of what we've spent years running from turns out to be ourselves. The practical side gets real: being honest without defensiveness is one thing, but taking feedback from someone else without getting defensive is the actual test. A story from nine months sober — going out of the way to make a newcomer feel welcome, not realizing until much later it wasn't the normal routine — and a story from three years in, when growth felt like a burden and a friend with thirty more years of sobriety gave the correction that was needed: stop complaining and get some more program in you. Sometimes growth requires someone else's honesty before it becomes our own. 12&12 page 124 closes it: true ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God. As that shift happens, joy, freedom, and peace begin to take root in my life. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | humility | sanctifying grace | Psalm 51 | staying teachable | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected]  Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.