As I played tennis this morning, I found myself annoyed with my partner. It was a woman I had just met. She seemed intent on blaming me for our losing score. Sure, I was making my share of the errors, but she was making plenty too. For a while, I decided to keep quiet and accept the criticism in stride, while trying to improve my game. But I eventually ran out of patience and pushed back. The next time she highlighted an error I made, I pointed out that she had made errors on the previous two points.

This was not a winning strategy. Both of our games got worse instead of better. My pride kept my focus on my partner’s judgment and comments instead of focusing on my footwork or on the ball.

Humility is really challenging. Pride is insistent and indignant with plenty of rationalization to go around.

When I feel I am in the right or if my rights are being stepped on in any way, humility is not my natural reaction.

“Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.” (Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬-‭8,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

Jesus had every right not to be humble. He is God. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and eternal. He created the world. And yet, He laid all of that aside to model perfect humility for His followers.

Jesus’s humility was total. He followed humility all the way to death. I couldn’t even follow humility’s course for the rest of a tennis match.

Dear God, I have a lot of work to do when it comes to humility. Help me to stop caring so much about my rights and to care more about the needs of others. Help me to care less about other people’s opinion of me and to care only about your opinion of me.