One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn from Christianity is humility. Humbly accepting when you’re wrong. Humbly standing firm when you’re right. Humbly listening when others even when they are saying something you totally don’t want to hear. But humility is one of the hardest things to notice, and as soon as you notice it, you become prideful about being humble and you just begin this vicious cycle.
So I decided to come with a test for being humble. My first thought was to rip off Mark Zuckerberg by creating a humble-or-not mashup website, but I’d rather NOT deal with the ad board. So I devised a personally scored quiz instead. Rate yourself at the bottom:
1. You passed on a random act of kindness today = +1
2. You passed on several random acts of kindness = +1 per act
3. You didn’t even notice that you were being kind to others because you’re always putting their needs above your own = +40
4. You just gave yourself 40 points for the question above = -38
8. You interrupted someone else while they were talking today = -1 per interruption
9. You asked someone for advice today = +2 per person from whom advice was solicited
10. You actually took that advice = +2
11. You didn’t just remind yourself that the person you are getting advice from graduated from nowhere school in who-cares Idaho = +2
12. You just insulted the entire state of Idaho = -5
13. You thought for a moment, “Why am I even listening? I go to Harvard!” = -10
14. You asked someone for help when you needed it today = +3
15. You listened to someone’s problems today = +4
16. You spent more than 30 minutes complaining about your own = -5
17. You learned something from someone else today = +3
18. You speak well of those who have criticized or disagreed with you = +4
19. You just thought, “Who would disagree with me?!” = -10
20. You’re about to post your results from this quiz on Facebook = -20
Now tally up your results to see how you scored:
0-10 points – Daaang. You need to repent!
11-20 points – You’re on the right track, but still have some work to do…
21 or more points – Enjoy your slice of humble pie!
Mmmmmm! Isn’t it delicious?!
Note that humility isn’t just a virtue that God says is good, it is also productive. Many businesses look for humility in their employees, because they know humble people work better in groups. Talk about having your pie and eating it, too!