On The Journey Towards Humility

Uriah Heep, in David Copperfield, keeps repeating that he's a "'Umble man". He turns out to be anything but humble. He uses that mask to selfish ends.
Humble comes from the Latin word for dirt or earth's soil. Being humble has something to do with being as simple and honest and dignified as the soil. It is what it is and nothing more or less. By contrast, inferiority is an excuse, or a self-diminishment resulting from compare-sinning. If we are frightened of entering into the adventure of the new or the unfamiliar, we can excuse ourselves by "'umbly" assuming the mask of not being adequate.
The sin of comparing ourselves with others will keep us always under the umbrella of sad safety. In this lifestyle we judge the gifts of others as better than anything we might have. We also live in fear of others judging us in the same negative manner. The sin of this comparing is that we end up denying that we have anything good at all. We also prevent ourselves being gifts in the lives of anybody else.
We are of the earth, but not defined totally by the earth. Humility is the peaceful state of honest acceptance of how my earthliness can give growth to others. Pride has to do with creating ourselves. We walk the road to humility with our feet on the earth and our identities given us by the Creator, Who sees everything as good and humans as very good.

- Larry Gillick