This week, I worked with my company's management team making visits to some of our brokers and customers. It was a very good week on the most part, except one of my friends had to leave due to a death in his family which left me as a driver for several in the group.
During our visits, I received several compliments from brokers and some very important customers on my abilities and work ethics. After our last customer visit, we said our farewells and my boss told me that I had done a good job and he was proud to have me as part of his team. He asked that I share the secrets of my success with my peers.
I got in the car with the people I was driving, My ego and my head swelling with pride. I promptly backed into my customer's mailbox. I did not damage the mailbox, but I had to go in and tell them and then I had to call my boss who had just praised me.
St. Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, "So that I would not become conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh . . . to keep me from getting proud. The Lord told Paul, "My grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection.""
I thank my creator with my prayers for the grace that bestows on me so many blessings. A happy and healthy family, good friends, and the ability through God's gifts to work with people. I do have thorns in my flesh that keep me humble.
God's grace has allowed me to have a good job and good people to work with; but sometimes we think that our success is all us. We are tempted by our humanity with pride that leads to conceitedness and boasting, a thorn in our flesh. But, this week shows how God can humble the proud in such a simple way when they forget the source of their gifts.
I was telling this to a friend of mine and I loved his comment. "Humble pie taste great when you know where it comes from."
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