The New Humility
I have a new take on the nameless virtue. (First nameless virtue post here).
Let’s look at something President Nelson said.
Discover the joy of daily repentance. Cut short your misery. He loves us especially when we repent.
In other words, the thing that men and women on the gospel path have in common is their aspiration. They are keenly aware that they need to be and can be much better than they are. They desire more.
Now look at the nameless virtue. It’s the virtue of recognizing standards under which you are currently a failure. The single guy who praises marriage. The fat girl who encourages losing weight.
Isn’t that the same thing? Daily repentance is just the nameless virtue with hope and faith that you can achieve the standard some day that you currently fall short of.
In short, I believe the nameless virtue has a name. It is not nameless after all. Its name is humility. Only now we have a rigorous and informed understanding of what humility is, whereas before we had vague and disputable notions. Humility is recognizing that you fall far short of where you should or could be, and still wanting to get there. The still wanting to get there part is part of the virtue because giving up on getting there is often a weak way of dealing with the pain of falling short. It is virtuous–nameless virtuous–to not flinch from the pain of facing the gap between where you are and where you should be.
Once you realize that humility is basically aspirational, that the root of humility is the desire for more, it illuminates the scriptures.
Blessed are they who aspire to inherit the earth, because they shall inherit the earth.
The proud think they have enough, and so we will leave them far, far, far behind.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: gospel of victory, nameless virtue
Bookslinger
April 7, 2022
Great essay.
The humility “of the world” — without faith, hope, charity/love, aspiration — is just timidity.
Rozy
April 7, 2022
I love this. “The proud think they have enough,” which means that aspiring for more of what matters most is not being prideful. Thank God for that understanding.
G.
April 7, 2022
Books, Rozy, well said.
seriouslypleasedropit
April 7, 2022
Yes!
I think this is one sense in which earthly sorrow can be “swallowed up” in Christ—when you just get sick of dwelling on your shortcomings and make a final decision to never, ever, ever let it stop you from moving forward. Each of us daily falls terribly, terribly short. But when we focus on Christ and where we are going, it seems almost…inconsequential.
JRL in AZ
April 8, 2022
So good. I have long thought that the key to humility is simply in understanding who we are. We are the children of God, and we can become like them. That understanding should keep us from thinking we are better than our brothers and sisters, as we fall far short of godhood yet, and they share the exact same heritage. And it should keep us from feeling worthless, because we are the children of God! It is the remedy for pride and its worldly opposite.
Zen
April 9, 2022
If pride is enmity towards God and man, then its opposite should be something closer to Charity, the pure love of Christ.
Eric
April 10, 2022
President Benson identified enmity as the central feature of pride, but I wouldn’t say they have a 1:1 correlation with each other. Humility and charity don’t have a 1:1 correlation either, but they do have a lot of overlap.