I was out with family last night and was recognised! The mother of an old school friend spotted me and after looking at me for a while (a bit unnerving as I’d noticed it), she came and asked me if I was indeed Annmarie Keeley (my maiden name).

She seemed genuinely delighted to have found me and had fond memories of me. “You’d come in to my house all… you know….” and she did this zany gesture that looked to me like confidence and exuberance. I asked about my old friend and we chatted about what I was up to. We talked about the band that was playing and how great they were. She already knew that three members of the band were nephews of mine. Before we said goodbye, she said that any time I came in to her house, she would ask me to sing; and I never said no. Her abiding memory of me is singing in her kitchen.

I think about her a lot. I don’t mean my friend’s mother, I mean that teenager who used to sing in her kitchen.

Last week I was chatting on Spirit Radio about humility and then on Sunday it was the theme of the sermon. Both times the point was made – humility is absent when we talk ourselves up, but also when we talk ourselves down.

False humility doesn’t just say “I’m SO wonderful.” It also says “I’m SO terrible.” Real humility is not thinking about yourself as better, or thinking about yourself as worse – it is simply thinking about yourself less. Thinking of others first; as the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2.

I used to think that I was getting more humble as time went on. You know… developing and maturing. But I wonder if I’m getting less humble. I reckon when singing in that woman’s kitchen, I hardly thought about my self at all.

Must see if I can get back to that place (Not her kitchen, that would just be weird! 🙂 )

Photo credit: From Pinterest user Mandy Schaalma