Lately, I have a hard time waking up with my alarm. I ended up skipping my thyroid medication, making less-tasty coffee, and forgetting things on my way out the door—all of this simply to make it to work on time. It kills me that I do this to myself. I mean, this is insignificant stuff! Well, maybe except the meds part.

It’s the little things that get under my skin when I’m dealing with myself. I tend not to sweat the bigger stuff because I tend to think I can handle it. “Think.” I am mistaken. Little stuff piles up easily and becomes a big ordeal if left unchecked, ignored. In arrogance and ignorance, it’s easy for me to say, “It’s nothing. I can deal with it later.” This, however, is not the case, and learning this fact can be humiliating to oneself.

In times like that, have you ever been guilty of using the statement, “I guess God is just keeping me humble”? Maybe it’s not those words exactly, but do you know the attitude? Something happens in your life that doesn’t go the way you planned it (meticulously or casually), and you become upset. That’s not wrong, right? I’m sure most people mean well when they say that.

But really, isn’t it generally with a hint of disdain? “God, why did you let this or that happen?” as though we know better than He. Isn’t this an indication of hurt pride rather than humility? We reap the consequences of our actions.

It’s supposedly a great “Christian” thing to pray for humility, right? In a sense, that acknowledges that, yes, I have pride, but it also presents us with a problem. What is it we think we have to be proud of?

We seek reasons to stand alone, be independent, and often times we do this in arrogance, without even realizing it. Do we not daily need the Lord? Is it not better to every moment pray that He be glorified, and pray this in honesty, rather than fall and be hurt along with our ego? God will take care of you! You don’t have to go through life by your own strength. Though we must be responsible for ourselves, the Lord is our strength to be responsible.

It can be humiliating to fail, a crippling to the Achilles heel of our pride. It can even make a person hate himself. But that isn’t what God wants for us. True humility is found somewhere between our arrogance and self-deprecation. Not everything is rosy, but not everything is bleak, either. You may live well one day yet be a complete mess the next. No, you are not bipolar, nor are you a failure. You are human. If God is who He says He is, He will do His part. Whether or not we humble ourselves and surrender to that, and follow Him, is completely up to us.