Who? Me?

One of the most difficult things to accept for a leader, actually for any human being, is that he or she has made a mistake. One of the character traits that separates good leaders from bad ones is the capacity to accept his or her mistakes and learn from them. It requires a lot of humility, a virtue indispensable for good leadership.

Many people in authority roles seldom accept their responsability in the mistakes they make. They put the blame on someone else. "I saw that the people were scattered from me"; "Thou camest not within the days appointed"; "The Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash"; "the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen". Saul never accepted his responsability. Power blinded him, it changed him into a proud man. He was not any longer a man from the "smallest tribes of Israel", now he was the man in charge, the man with authority, the man with power. (1Samuel chapters 9, 13, 15)

On the other hand we have a man who receives one of the greates compliments to which any of us can aspire. He was called a "man according to God's own heart". He was not perfect. He made terrible mistakes in his life, but what made him get up and continue in a growing process was the humility he had, manifested in his acceptance of the personal responsability he had in those mistakes. He never put the blame on someone else. "blot out my transgressions"; "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity"; "cleanse me from my sin"; "I acknowledge my transgressions"; "my sin is ever before me". (Psalms 51)

Pride distorts reality. If we let pride takes our mind, it will obscure our real condition. Pride can lead us to think that "we are rich and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3).

True humility will help us to always have our feet on the ground, have our mind and senses tuned to our real condition. True humility will help us accept and correct our path when we have to. To ask for forgiveness when necessary.

Just thinking...