A few weeks ago I was in a Sunday meeting in which the teacher began to speak about talents and divine gifts that we have been given. She shared the example of her sister's ability to sing well as being a God-given talent, and then invited the class to share examples of their own talents or talents that they recognized in others. Various women shared stories about their own sisters, their parents, or their friends. Then one girl spoke up and said to the teacher, "Well, you're sister isn't the only one who can sing well. I am a really good singer!" This particular girl has special needs and we [the rest of the class] just all had to smile to ourselves. Of course none of us would dare boast of our own talents in that way! But then I began to wonder to myself . . . Why not?
This girl, in a way, is still very much like a child. Many children do not hesitate to show off their abilities to others and pride themselves in their accomplishments. They have not yet learned to practice the virtues of "humility" and "modesty." But is it right to deny our talents and abilities, when acknowledged, and call that humility? I wonder if we can learn from these children and perhaps find a balance between being prideful and denying our worth.
I am just as guilty as the next person of belittling my talents and accomplishments, and saying that they're really not that great or special; so often, in fact, that I truly come to believe it. Isn't it our first reaction when given a compliment to disagree or brush it aside? When told that we look nice do we smile and say "thank you," or do we say something like, "Oh whatever, I didn't even fix my hair today. " That is not only selling ourselves short, but it is also rudely rejecting another person's attempt to show regard for us. Somewhere along the way, we have been fooled into believing that such rejection is practicing modesty. But I believe that to be false.
To support my case, I now quote C.S. Lewis in his book "The Screwtape Letters." Let me first give a little background . . . . This fictional book is a series of letters written by a demon named Screwtape to his nephew demon, Wormwood. Screwtape is instructing his nephew in the ways of tempting and bringing eventual damnation to a man. Since these characters are demons, "the Enemy" being referred to is God.
"By this virtue [humility], as by all the others, our Enemy wants to turn the man's attention away from self to Him, and to the man's neighbours. [ . . .] You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character. Some talents, I gather, he really has. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be. [ . . .] By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible."
To anticipate the Enemy's strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents—or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love—a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own; when they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours."
While we must not boast of ourselves or in our own strength, or ever place ourselves above others, we must also not deny our talents, strength, or beauty that God has given us. I think that it is part of our stewardship over these things to acknowledge them, to glory in them, and to use them for the benefit of others and the building up of His kingdom. I think we could all take a lesson and, as the scriptures say, "[become] as a child." Let's all rejoice in the divine gifts given to us and, most importantly, rejoice in the Giver of these gifts!
