Humility or Humiliation?

What is the difference between humility and humiliation?

I see them like this. Picture your life as if you were a 10-story
building. Pride is the penthouse on the 10th floor. Humility is
the first floor. Humiliation is the basement.

As you begin to rise toward pride and ascend to the 2nd, 3rd,
4th floors, or even higher. You come to a choice. You can either
continue to rise to a prideful ruin; because Scripture teaches
that pride comes before a fall.

Or, you can return to the first floor where you humble yourself,
esteem others better than yourself and not think of yourself
more highly than you ought.

If you don't, God will press the elevator button and send you
to the basement--humiliation. Either we humble ourselves, or
force God to humiliate us.

As I write this, I'm staying in a hotel in central Africa, which
by American standards is "Spartan." But it’s the best hotel in
the city.

There is electricity in my room only when I complain. Then,
the question is always, "Mr. Smith, for how many minutes do
you need it?"

I've discovered that it’s difficult to bathe, when the water only
trickles from the showerhead. It's difficult to comb your hair
when the room is too dark to see your reflection in the mirror.
It's difficult to sleep when your room is so hot you can’t stop
sweating.

In moments like these I begin to realize again the many things
I tend to take for granted.

So, by Braille, I will put on my suit and tie, push my hair into
some reasonable shape, sponge-bathe, completely ignore my
electric razor, and make my way across town to the conference
venue where there are hundreds of precious Christian people
some who walked for miles, others rode bicycles for days, or
trains and busses for hours to get here.

They’ve slept on the concrete auditorium floor the past three
nights, eaten food cooked for the over an outdoor fire why?
To hear what God has to say to them through me. Once again
I am humbled.

The next time you complain about your cell phone connection,
remember that 80% of the people on planet Earth have never,
and will never in their lifetime have the opportunity to use a
telephone.
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Eddie Smith is a best selling author and internationally known
speaker and president of the U.S. Prayer Center in Houston, TX.
He and his wife, Alice, offer a free 52-Week School of Prayer at
www.TeachMeToPray.com