I got the idea somewhere along the line that humility was one of the most pleasing traits you could have in the eyes of God.

I think that I thought that if a gentle sense of humility was pleasing to God, then a really well-developed and positive sense of self was something to be avoided.

I guess that humility might be the flip side of pride, though….like I could say, “I’M THE MOST HUMBLE MAN IN THE WORLD!!  DON’T LOOK AT MY DOWN TURNED HEAD…BUT LOOK AT ME!!! I’M AS HUMBLE AS CAN BE!!!“.

I don’t really know that I was hitting it from the right angle.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that one of the best things we can do in our relationship with God is celebrate the little piece of greatness He gave us when we were born.

“Little piece” is the best way I could describe what I think is going on…no real need to get a big head…but no need to get a droopy, sad head either.

He allows a small taste of what goodness is really all about.

We take that taste and in our self-flagellating way, tear it down and discount it all…living only for the future and harvesting sadness from our involvement with the “evil world”.

We sell ourselves short…and in the process discount what God has given us.

It’s kind of like there’s two well-defined planes of existence…the spiritual one that is separate from us and that we can never reach (while we’re alive)…and the physical one we’re “trapped in” right now.

Of course, the physical plane is so evil that the best thing we can do is transcend it…and because we can’t really fully transcend it, and because we’re trapped in it as long as we exist on earth, then that must make us pretty evil, too.

Shucks.

Now, I’m not as tortured by all this as writing it down would make it appear.  I think about it…but I’m not tortured.  I’m just thinking about it.

But when you discount a gift, it takes away from both the gift and the giver.

A party is only a celebration when it’s really appreciated.

There’s nothing wrong with really enjoying what we’ve been given in this life.

There is no crime in really enjoying and appreciating God, either.

It would ruin the field of Psychology if we could break things down in such a simple way.

We are given this life and all of its possibilities.

It’s a gift to be explored and celebrated.

That’s more than just a homily on a Hallmark greeting card…it’s something I really do believe.

Even if I don’t always express it well, I believe it.

Misplaced humility is a sad and confused thing.

The “confused” part comes when we suppose that there’s a big separation between the physical and the spiritual…that God is separate from us and unreachable.

And we need to keep our humble and contrite heads down, or somehow we’re going to find that God is just waiting to knock us back into the frame of mind we were supposed to sustain on our own.

Don’t get too “uppity” or you’ll get smashed by the hand of God….better to just lay low and wait for the end and the victory that waits for those who never reach…or appreciate.

I don’t think He set things up like that.  He gives us every opportunity for communion with Him.  I don’t think it’s God who celebrates and accentuates any kind of disconnect.

We’re just walking sausage casings…carrying an ever-present spirit that deserves to be appreciated… and celebrated. We are spirit with a wrapper…a silly and fragile casing that we slough off like a chrysalis when we die.

This world is not my home.

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating a gift.  There’s nothing wrong with celebrating a miracle.

There’s nothing wrong with loving what deserves to be loved.