Plagued by Humility

Here I am half-way through my second year of grad school, and I've just changed topics for my thesis that is supposed to be finished by the end of the second year. Yes, there is a little leeway, but I really need to have this thing proposed next semester and defended either summer or early fall.

I am a very last-minute oriented student, and I am discovering how this does not suit a project such as a thesis. Truly, I think the way I have taught myself to work, the best way for me to complete my thesis would be to take an entire month and work non-stop on it... or something like that. Kind of like an extended version of the all-night paper writing I do from time to time. I work well this way and even enjoy it. It's just that if something isn't "due" right then, there are always other things to be done so I turn to them first.

I tried to go to bed early tonight and am beginning to realize that unless I am sleep deprived, early bed-times do not work. I end up tossing and turning until even later than I normally would have gone to sleep. Or perhaps it is just that I have a lot on my mind.

What is humility? How can it be defined? Who is to say what it is or is not? How do I want to define it? Is it defined differently by Christians than Muslims? What about Buddhists? The secularist? Can it be measured? Is it true that once you recognize humility within yourself that it immediately disappears? If this is the case, then why does scripture call us to "humble ourselves"? C.S. Lewis says the first step toward humility is recognizing your pride and that anyone who does not recognize his pride cannot be humble... in this sense, no one is free of pride and as such someone with humility cannot be the same as someone free of pride. Unless this simply means that no fallen human can actually "have" humility in it's purest sense.

God humbled Himself and became a man. This particular act of humility has large implications for its definition. But I wonder if it is fair to define a human virtue by its divine use. But then again, if we are to define something, what better context than that of its perfect form. And where else can one find a perfect expression of humility?