For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

              Humility is a theme that runs throughout the Bible, from the Hebrew prophets declaring themselves unworthy to speak God’s word to God’s people (Isaiah 6:5), to Jesus declaring that whoever humbles themselves like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4). Now we have Paul telling the people of the church in Rome “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought.”

              As a virtue, humility acknowledges our dependence upon others and God. The myth of the self-made person runs strong in our culture, but we also stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and we have benefitted from the blessings handed down to us. Being humble means sharing the credit even as we recognize our own shortcomings.

              And yet, like pride, our humbleness can go to excess. When Paul cautions, “not to think of yourself more highly that you ought,” it’s the “than you ought” that strikes me.

              Sometimes we can lose ourselves in our humility. We can diminish our own gifts. We can defer to lesser talent. We give up our agency and let others run roughshod over us. This is not humility. This is abdicating “the measure of faith (and all of our other gifts) that God has assigned.”

              We do need to guard against thinking too much of ourselves, but we also need to guard against thinking too little. God has blessed each of us with gifts for building a better world and we honor God best by putting those gifts to work.

              May we all employ “sober judgment,” thinking neither too much nor too little of ourselves, as we use the gifts God has given us for the work of God’s kingdom.