Walking the Path

Listening to a podcast recently I heard this from Eboo Patel.  “You see the light on the path.  You walk the path.  You don’t become particularly impressed with yourself.”  That seems like a pretty good rule of life, one that calls up Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  But it occurs to me that Patel’s admonition — “don’t become particularly impressed with yourself”–  is a critical addition to the equation.  When things are going well, it is easy to believe that in my walk I am responsible for not just putting one foot in front of the other, but also for creating the path and the light.  Conversely, when things aren’t going so well, someone else is responsible for the darkness and the boulders in my path.