HUMILITY...ALL IS WELL

Humility. For whatever reason, examples of humility are coming to me a lot these days.

I pray for Pope Francis every day purely and simply because he asked it of us. I was watching him on television when he was visiting Washington, DC.  A man in the crowd reached out to touch him, and he grasped the man's hand and urgently asked...begged really...the man to pray for him. Of course, this total stranger agreed, but the Pope continued to beseech him, "Will you?" he asked, "Will you pray for me?"

I feel certain sure that he was asking for the prayers of each and all of us who were watching him on TV at that time...and I felt moved. I knew that to be an act of humility beyond my ken. I mean, he's the POPE, and there he is on nationwide hook-up asking a stranger on a street corner and a few million others to pray for him!  Now that is humility.

And then there's Mrs. Robinson, Michelle Obama's mother, the President of the United States's mother-in-law. We never hear about her. Except when the President was inaugurated in 2009, and it was announced that she would be moving into the White House with the Obamas for the two girls, we've rarely heard a word about her. I took no note of this until the President's big farewell speech recently when he was thanking so many individuals who had been more than helpful to him. There she was sitting on the front row and not a word did he mention about her. We had to know this was per her request. I mean, she's his mother-in-law, and he's no fool. Again, I was moved, and I had to believe there, too, is humility.

It has occurred to me that the direction to "Humbly ask God to..." is telling us to pray, "Thank you, Father, for...." We can then rest in the knowledge that he knows the rest of the sentence and has already taken care of it. If we're still believing we need to spell anything out for God before God will get it...well.  Enough said?

That may be our jumping-off place for doing humility. Thank him instead of ask him, and rest knowing he's got it covered...all is well.

All is well. All is well. All is well with my soul.

Thank you.