Humility is a difficult challenge for believers. Haughtiness comes in many forms. It comes in aggressive bragging, inflated (inaccurate) selfishness, and “thinking more highly of ourselves than you ought”. But it also takes another form. Haughtiness can come in silencing our self, hoarding the gifts of God, and denying our responsibility.
These latter tendencies are the mask of false-humility. The kind that throws away any sense of self in fear of making too much of the self.
Humility is simply seeing things as they truly are. Honor (and in that sense pride or glory) is not a poison to be avoided. We just need to approach it with accuracy. It needs to be grounded in truth or the whole pursuit will be out of whack.
Too often we neuter our passions, muffle our calling, and silence our character because we are afraid of pride. We want to look humble rather than be humble. Shying from the calling of God in our lives, the part we have to play in the Kingdom, is its own kind of blasphemy – stifling the image of God within us.
Humility is not about eradicating the self. It is about placing the self in proper context. It is about seeking the truth of who we are in light of who God is. Pursuing truth is the noble act of humility.