Humility

First, I apologize for the less than creative name. I'm a bit pressed for time (so this will be short), but I really wanted to share some thoughts from our campus chapel service this morning.
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4
Being humble is such a slippery slope, and our struggles can go both ways. Obviously pride is not a good thing in excess. We should be proud of our accomplishments, but not brag or be arrogant. Yet humility can also be taken too far. It's easy to consider others as better than yourself when your opinion of yourself is so low that it would be hard to find someone worse. Self esteem is very important. We cannot love others the way we were meant to if we don't first show love to ourselves. So pride and humility, like many other things in life, have to be kept in a tricky balance. 
It helps to look at the second sentence of the passage. A great way to show humility is to care about the lives and goals of others, rather than just your own. Helping someone better themselves shows that you think they're important. It (hopefully, if they follow your example) begins a cycle of caring that may make it's way back to you someday. Although it can be said that "nice guys finish last", it can also sometimes be said that they get a bigger reward for their patience in the end. Although it's frustrating to feel overlooked, wouldn't you prefer having the respect that results when the rest of the world realizes that you have worth, and you don't demand recognition for it? God's Word never fails to improve our lives (better than we could do by our own instincts), even though it's hard to carry out sometimes.