From the friends and family you know, you'd get answers such as these: "Finished school." "Said no to my cheating boyfriend." "Admitted I have a drinking problem." "Lost 77 pounds." "Beat cancer."
From the angels you know (but can't see), you'd get these answers: "Struggled to know who he really is. Kept trying to learn how to trust herself. Learned how to recognize his strengths and also his absences-of-strength. Admitted she made a mistake."
Show me . . . Learned about Humbleness!
The humbleness of the soul is something very, very different from the religious humility taught over the centuries by sages and saints. Humbleness is the sweet spot that major world religions don't teach you to find because humbleness is a very dangerous thing. Humbleness is one of the tumblers on the lock that allows you to be in full relationship with God as a human being. Unlock the mystery of humbleness and your journey on the spiral path speeds up from a slow crawl to a brisk walk.
Humbleness is a difficult concept to convey because it's not a single "value" or "emotion." It's more like a rich tapestry. It's about knowing yourself. It's about liking yourself. It's about knowing your neighbour. It's about liking your neighbour. It's about acceptance. And courage. And honesty -- lots and lots of honesty. It's about doing the right thing even when it's harder to do the right thing than the wrong thing. And it's about heart. There's no humbleness without the heart.
Since it's hard to put into words, I've compiled a list of some films that do a great job of showing you what I mean by humbleness. This isn't a complete list, by any means. But these are some films that strike me as being especially honest about what it means to know yourself -- what it means to be earnestly you!
First, some films based on characters who already know themselves, who already know their strengths and absences-of-strengths and use their knowledge of themselves to help others (even though they aren't perfect and don't know everything):
- Legally Blonde
- Babe
- Crocodile Dundee
- High Noon
- Blindness
- Shrek
- Heaven Can Wait/Down to Earth
- The Sound of Music
- The Miracle Worker (the Anne Sullivan character)
- Blast from the Past
- The Wizard of Oz
- A Christmas Carol
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- The Miracle Worker (the Helen Keller character)
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Count of Monte Cristo (the 2002 version)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the 1966 animated version)
- Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (the stop-motion animated version)
- Groundhog Day (my all-time favourite)
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| Great works of science fiction and fantasy have a way of getting under the skin of the brain-soul nexus. I'm sure you can think of many examples of speculative fiction that examine the theme of redemption in compelling ways. Pictured here is "Regina 2049," digital print by Jamie MacDonald. |
Most of the people I know can relate a lot better to the second set of films than the first. My own journey felt a helluva lot like Groundhog Day at first. And I've known quite a few people who've trapped themselves in the starring role of Ebenezer Scrooge and don't know how to get themselves out of a lifetime of selfishness.
The trick is to trust that you can get out as long as you have the right help.
Learning about Humbleness isn't something you can do on your own. You need feedback from other people, and you need to have the chance to offer others feedback, too.
Instead of a Family Feud, it's a family partnership where we lift each other up instead of beating each other down. Doesn't that sound like a family you'd like to be part of?
For Further Reflection:
If the theories you have about God, Creation, the soul, and the afterlife can be said to be the roots of the spiritual tree you're growing, then Humbleness is the sturdy trunk.
As you would expect, Humbleness starts out small in your life, like the trunk of a new seedling. But if you protect the vulnerable roots and the distinctive leaves struggling to open themselves to the light of Peace, the trunk will continue to grow stronger each year.
In the analogy of the spiritual tree, most people would guess that the trunk of the tree is made of Divine Love. This isn't a bad guess, because, after all, everyone draws nourishment and strength from Divine Love. But in this analogy, Divine Love is the mysterious underground energy that originates in the two hub trees -- the Tree of Life and the Tree of Moral Knowledge -- and that flows back and forth among the trees of spiritual growth to sustain them.
Humbleness, on the other hand, is a complex tapestry of emotions that allows you to use your soul talents wisely and for the benefit of others.
What are soul talents? They're the aspects of yourself that allow you to not only think with your Mind and feel with your Heart as a soul, but allow you to act in Creation with free will. Your talent aspects are kind of like your soul hands and your soul feet and your soul voice. They allow you to make things and move things and speak things. Your talent aspects allow you to take ideas and feelings and turn them into beautiful, lasting creations.
Every soul -- including you -- has a unique combination of soul talents. When you incarnate as a human being, you bring some of these soul talents with you. (They're hardwired into your DNA.) Your soul talents start to manifest quite early in life, but if you fail to develop your Humbleness (that is, your emotional maturity) in tandem with your talents, you'll grow up to be a boastful, envious, narcissistic, selfish adult who has lots of talent but no awareness at all of how to use these talents wisely.
In other words, you'll grow up in state of metaphorical blindness -- blindness to the true potential of your talents, blindness to the talents of others, and blindness to the talents of God.
There's a reason that Jesus son of Joseph spoke so often of the need to open your eyes and your ears and your heart (e.g. Mark 8: 14-21). He was talking about Humbleness, about learning to know God through seeing and hearing and feeling God's creations without being envious of God's many talents.
You'd be surprised how many people are envious of God's many talents and how many people try to steal from God because they don't want to go through the trouble of learning to use their own talents with maturity.
Your angels know what your soul talents are and what your soul talents aren't.
And you don't get to pick, no matter how badly you want to be a famous superstar.
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