More Humble Than Proud

In the Hebrew the word for humility carries with it a sense of knowing how much space to take up. When should you take up space in order to help those who need help and when do you need to take up less space in order to allow others to have space to breathe. It is a great image for me to consider that being humble has both a meek and a powerful side to it.

When I think of the word 'proud' I tend to think of a person puffing out their chest, sometimes in healthy ways (such as when a good job is done) and sometimes in a unhealthy ways (such as when talking about how awesome you are). Proud always takes up more space while humility knows what is the correct space to take up. 

For reasons I do not know, we are writing and talking less about being humble and more about being proud (see Ngram below). The spiritual life is one that is not afraid of being proud, there are healthy times to take up more space. However, the spiritual life is knowing when to take up less space. Proud is fine, humble is greater.