Humility Clean Up in Aisle 7

“and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end, for it is yet for the time appointed — Daniel 11:35

In my last post, I shared about my journey to pursue the virtue of humility. I gave a quick example of an experience I had recently on this path, where I paraded around in a new jacket at a business meeting that still had the security tag on it.

Not the biggest upset, I agree. It is something that can happen to anyone and may not be viewed as profound.

While I am getting better at not reacting emotionally and replaying humiliating circumstances over and over, I still feel the initial sting.

According to Father Chad Ripperger, “If one experiences pain upon being humiliated, they have not yet fully mastered this virtue.”

I live in the belief that God is everywhere, and there are no coincidences. I’ve found that when I live this way, life becomes a grand adventure.

When we make promises to God – please know that it is not a small thing. It’s a BIG thing. We must be careful about the quick promises we make in passing because it matters. We need to respect the process that comes with it and the outcomes that follow.

Some consequences may be unintended, but you now have the receipts. Speaking of receipts…

This story occurred early in my humility journey and solidified my commitment to staying this course. It revealed my weakness and how much I need to lean on Jesus.

I was pulling into the local supermarket. I happened to be listening to a recording of Joyce Meyer’s Humility sermon. I used to get one CD a month from her ministry and I made a point to listen to them all. I was hungry to understand scripture and she had a way of explaining things plainly.

I thought, “well there’s no better place to apply it than in the supermarket!” Joyce used to say that the Holy Spirit taught her most things about character in the supermarket. It is a perfect playground for character-building.

I head into the store with a skip in my step. As I’m walking around putting things in my cart, I’m checking off a list in my head. I always leave my carefully curated list at home. Who else does that? I digress…

Midway through shopping, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker:

“Attention shoppers, if you could please check your cart, there has been a mix up so please come to the service desk if you find that you have the wrong cart. Thank you.”

I keep walking and shopping. From what I can see, my cart looks fine.

A second announcement comes on five minutes later.

I keep shopping, humming happy songs. I had the thought “Well that’s too bad, that person must be upset that their cart got taken.”

Another aisle over, I help an older person reach something off the top shelf. I have long arms and it’s an easy get for me. I’m feeling pretty good about myself at this point.

A third announcement of the missing cart came on once again. I thought to myself, “Gee, how could anyone have missed that by now…”

I’m finally done and head to the checkout line. As I’m placing items on the belt, I see a cold cut package of ham….Hmm, wait…that’s not my item. Then as my items uncover more things underneath, guess what I found?

Many items that weren’t mine

Oh My Goodness… I WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK SOMEONE ELSES CART!

I’m the one they are looking for!

I was so embarrassed, I wanted leave my cart there and walk right out the door.

By now, the cashier is scanning my order, so I gathered myself and spoke up: “I need you to pause this order, I realized that I was the one who took the wrong carriage.”

All of her 18 years (or thereabouts) looks at me and gives an eye roll.

“Ok, go over there and separate your things with a second cart and bring the missing cart items to customer service.”

I walk over to the service desk with missing cart items, and told the person behind the desk that this was the cart they were looking for. More than thirty minutes had passed since the first announcement, and the person had already left. Thank goodness, I didn’t have to face them too. I walked away as quickly as I could, tail between my legs.

I retrieved my cart, and of course I was missing half of the items I had originally bought. I was trying to piece together where I would have made that error. I realized that I was so in my head being proud of my good behavior, I was completely not present while shopping. Pride got me good.

I finished the shopping, checked out, and got the car loaded. I jumped back into the car, and as soon as I turned the ignition on, there was Joyce again, talking about humility. Right where I left off.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” – James 1:22-24

In the midst of things, I promptly forgot about my pre-shopping inspiration. The human mind is weak when facing circumstances, and without Jesus we regress back to typical response patterns and forget everything we’ve learned.

The moment I heard Joyce’s voice in the car, I saw God’s hand on this.

This forever changed my course with God. I started immediately building out my faith foundation. I no longer could take things casually, it was time to grow up.

The lessons of this journey still bear good fruit, they include:

1. We are the people He is looking for. Me. You. Them. The minute we think we can handle life on our own, we will inevitably stumble. The question is, how hard? Once we reconcile that we are just one big mess, we are finally in a place to receive His Grace. We need Jesus – and he sometimes put circumstances in our path to get us to look to Him. I ruminated over this situation for a few weeks, the embarrassment would flood my body from time to time. The heat of humiliation felt unbearable at first, but I slowly learned that this is the furnace God uses to refine us. I had to learn how to give it to Jesus, letting Him transform the burning shame into something purer, something that would draw me closer to Him.

“Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.” – Isaiah 48:10

2. There is no end destination in the pursuit of virtues. The refining process will last for the rest of our days, there is no endpoint. Until we take our last breath. At that point, we hope that our effort pleased God and we finish strong with a final destination of heaven. This gave me comfort to know that the learning process is eternal.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” – 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

3. God’s corrections are a sign that he loves us. It’s when we don’t get the corrections we should worry. That’s why, in pursuit of virtues, He slowly molds us into His likeness. It can feel like one step forward, two steps back in the walk with God. It can be a super frustrating process to develop any of these virtues because our human ways will bring all our bad behaviors and triggers into the light. It can be painful, but is ultimately a key to freedom.

   “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” – Proverbs 3:11-12

4. Compassion for others expands. It has for me. My faults have come to my attention so many times that I am able to empathize with others when their faults are revealed. Once we realize how imperfect we are, and how many times we miss the mark, our ability to empathize and offer compassion expands.

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” – Luke 6:42

5. Self Control is a by-product of Humility

Self control is something we develop like muscles. It must be tried and tested and used again and again to master it. These opportunities come up only when there is adversity. The fruit of self control is a direct outcome from overcoming ourselves, when humility teaches us to pause before reacting.

In the grocery store that day, I had multiple chances to practice both humility and self control —to pause when the announcements came, to check my cart, to stay present instead of getting lost in my own pride.

But I failed at every turn. Since then, I’ve learned that humility creates space for self-control to grow.

When someone cuts me off in traffic, when I receive criticism at work, when my carefully laid plans crumble—that split second before I respond is where self-control lives.

The more I practice humility, the more that gap widens, giving me room to choose a Christ-like response instead of a knee-jerk reaction. It’s in those small moments of restraint that I feel God’s strength working through my weakness.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9

My Humility Journey has spanned over a decade, as I had found this Facebook post I made in 2015 when this grocery cart debacle happened.

God gives you incremental challenges, which is why I keep a humility journal that has tracked the various situations over the years. It’s fun to go back and review the experiences, and I remember every one of them.

Each offers a gift in one way or another.

Here’s what I’ve come to understand: God doesn’t waste our mistakes.

That grocery store humiliation became a cornerstone in my faith journey.

Every stumble, every moment of embarrassment, every time I fall short—these aren’t failures. They are an opportunity for Grace.

They are invitations to lean harder into Jesus, to trade our pride for His peace, to let Him refine us in the furnace of everyday life.

Maybe you’re reading this and thinking about your own journey.

Perhaps there’s a virtue God is calling you to pursue—humility, faith, hope, charity, temperance? There are 64 of them, so there is plenty of room for growth in the perfection of our souls. I’ll explain them in my next post.

Maybe you’ve been hesitant to ask God to teach you because, like me with that CD in the parking lot, you sense it won’t be comfortable.

You’re right. It won’t be.

But I promise you this: it will be worth it.

Every awkward moment, every sting of correction, every time you have to swallow your pride—it’s all shaping you into someone who looks more like Jesus.

And isn’t that what we’re all here for?

So I’ll leave you with these questions to contemplate:

• What virtue is the Holy Spirit whispering to your heart?

• What area of your life keeps showing up as uncomfortable or challenging?

That’s probably exactly where God wants to meet you and transform you.

If you don’t know, pray to the Holy Blessed Mother and it will be revealed. After all, it’s our Mother’s that know us best.

Don’t wait for the perfect time. Don’t wait until you feel ready.

Invite Him into that messy, uncomfortable place. Then buckle up and watch how He turns your disasters into divine appointments.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single prayer: “Lord, teach me.”

What will yours be?

Blessings all, thank you for reading.