Truth Begins in Humility

     Today someone I work with took the time to send me an email telling me how much she appreciates the way I do my job. Now the fact that she would take the time to let me know her feelings meant a lot to me, but it just so happens that I started the morning with some clouds of self-doubt.  Her email had come at the perfect time. I responded with, "How did you know I needed to hear that this morning?" And she responded with, "The Lord works in mysterious ways."  How awesome!
     So I'm about to go to bed but before I do, I read my daily Mass readings, and wouldn't you know it, Jesus is talking to me about humility~ about not behaving in ways just to seek recognition, about how Truth begins in humility. And yet the Lord made me, and "He saw that it was good." So how are those two positions reconciled? As today's meditation says, true humility is knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and being honest about both. After 50 years, I know exactly what my weaknesses are, and I also know what my strengths are. I believe that both are gifts from God. I was given my strengths so that with His grace, I can accomplish my work here on earth. And I was given my weaknesses so that I would have to depend on the Lord and on others who were given the strengths that I don't have.
    So where did the self-doubt come from? I believe that self-doubt comes from lack of faith. I believe that when I doubt myself, I'm actually doubting the God who made me. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Self-doubt is temptation not to act or to act in ways that are self serving. How much havoc is wreaked on the world by people who are just trying to make themselves feel better? We can't make enough money, lose enough weight, win enough trophies to ever make ourselves feel better, at least not for the long haul. Only Christ can fill that hole, and when he does, then we have a responsibility to share the gifts he has given us and serve Him and each other.
 And yet that doubt, that lack of faith can creep in at any time because we live on earth, not Heaven. So thank you God, for sending me an Angel today to remind me that I've got work to do, and that You have given me and will continue to give me exactly what I need to accomplish that work.