All who come to God must empty themselves of themselves. They must set aside their self-centredness, selfish ambition, and self-sufficiency. In other words, they must put away pride and put on humility.

This is no easy task because what is within us wants what is best for us. And humility rarely makes that list. In a world that judges success on what writer David Brooks called “resumé virtues”—accomplishments to boast of—humility is seen as failure. Not so with God. Success to Him is the cultivation of “eulogy virtues”—of character, the first of which is humility.