Best Books
If you are looking for just the right way to get your year off to great start, consider setting aside a couple of hours to read Richard E. Simmons, III’s latest book The Power of a Humble Life: Quiet Strength in an Age of Arrogance. Beware, it may cause you to shift or change some of your priorities or goals for 2018 or simply reaffirm what you’ve felt God calling you to do- but it’s worth the time to delve into the subject of “the power in a humble life.” It is Simmons solution to dealing with what C.S. Lewis called the “chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began,” pride.
As I read the book, I could personally relate to walking down the path of pride. It took circumstances that “I could not fix” to make me realize I never was in control in the first place. Up until then, if I just tried a little harder, things went well for me in life- but not this time. It was God’s way of allowing me to experience the power of humility. It was a hard, yet beautiful way to learn it.
Simmons, who has 25 years of experience as a business leader and is the founder of The Center for Executive Leadership, shares real life examples of strength in the humble life including Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Martin Luther King Jr. and Moses. “I think it’s one thing to talk theory and it’s another thing to show how it works out in real life,” explains Simmons who admits to the reader his own struggles with pride and how he seeks to cultivate a heart of humility to deal with it. “When we humble ourselves, it helps us counter the pride of self-righteousness.”
Simmons offers four significant, personal applications on how to live a humble life including intentional gratitude. “For me personally, the one that is above all, is to intentionally spend time each day giving thanks to God. Going through the issues of life, where you realize all that I am and have is a gift from God. Starting with my life, my health, my wife, our children, our home, our resources, talents and abilities, the job and work I have, the relationships He has blessed me with, extended family and friends and finally, the spiritual blessings,” says Simmons adding, “How often do we thank God for the spiritual blessings of life which are more significant than anything else we have and yet it’s amazing how we take things for granted. That is at the heart of arrogance, we just take things for granted.”
Simmons goal for his latest book is that those who read it will be transformed by it. “One of the most important truths I have learned over the course of my life is that we are responsible for seeking a humble life and cultivating a humble heart. We must therefore realize that humility is a choice that we must first make, and then pursue.” For a free preview of the book, including the first chapter, visit www.thecenterbham.org/product/the-power-of-a-humble-life. The book can also be purchased at www.thecenterbham.org, www.Amazon.com, and at local retailers including The Advent Bookstore, Briarwood Bookstore, The Carpenter Shop, Lamb’s Ears/Crestline and Seibel’s/Homewood.
-Laurie Stroud
