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Nov 08, 2025 06:00am

Why God Sometimes Serves You Humble Pie (and Why You Should Thank Him)

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I love pie, especially pumpkin pie. With whipped cream. (Lots of whipped cream.) It’s delicious and gratifying. (After all, you are eating a vegetable, aren’t you?) I love taking time to savor each bite. (Don’t even get me started on the crust—it’s the “finishing touch,” especially homemade crust.)

However, there are some types of pie I don’t enjoy. I do not enjoy pecan pie, rhubarb pie, or sweet potato pie, to name a few.

But the one I really can’t stomach most of all is humble pie.

Humble pie is the worst kind of pie to eat because it tastes awful—and it hurts when you swallow it. Additionally, it doesn’t settle well, which can cause an upset stomach and nausea.

I know this feeling well, as I’ve experienced it recently, and quite frankly, it made me want to throw up.

You see, I was called out on a few things. A few things I didn’t think were too important, so I overlooked them, conveniently “forgetting” about them. And I may have thought I was above the law. Either way you look at it, one common element is glaringly evident: I had a serious case of the “me complex.”

I chose to neglect a few things because they weren’t important to me. I had much more important things to do on my list. I’ll worry about them another day when I have time for them. I’ll worry about them when the deadline is near—or even worse, when it’s already passed and I’m late.

Have you ever lived this way? This is an area of my life that I dislike very much. When deadlines aren’t close, jobs aren’t prioritized until it’s crunch time, then I am stressed, upset, and frazzled. And that, my friends, is how I’ve lived much of my life.

I think I’ve always been like this, living life in the fast lane of procrastination, never enjoying the fruits of “early bird gets the worm” and never truly enjoying peace of mind. It only worsened when I had the two boys so close to each other. I went into survival mode. Sometimes, I feel I am still living in this mode: worrying only about the most immediate task and putting all others on the back burner. This type of living got me through life for a few years, but it wasn’t pretty.

This brings me back to my current predicament. When you knowingly put off or overlook certain things, sooner or later, you’ll end up in an embarrassing situation in which you have to choke on some major humble pie and admit the harshest words in the human language: “I was wrong.” You see, when you’re an adult, excuses like “I didn’t know” or “Oops, I forgot about it” don’t cut it, and really, you just look more foolish when they come out of your mouth. I know this because when those were my first responses, I got “the look” (you know, the one your dad gave you when you came in after your curfew . . . maybe that was just me).

Here’s the real kicker: I’ve been asking God to help me take more responsibility in my spiritual journey with Him. “I can do this, God! I will be the very best for You!” had been my prayer for months. Now, those words slapped me across the face. You see, we are to do everything to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Everything. From the big task of raising our kids to the smallest job we might think we’re too good for. While God can use anyone, He tends to work with those who are willing to take on tasks, rather than those who say, “I’ll do it another day” or the proud, who say, “I’m not doing that.” It’s that whole “doing everything to the glory of God” part that can trip us up.

When I don’t listen to my boss, I am not glorifying God.
When I take shortcuts, I am not glorifying God.
When I roll my eyes at someone, I am not glorifying God.

It’s when I am plugging away, doing the right thing even when no one is watching, that God sees. God notices. And God blesses. Before God expands our borders, we can’t simply go through the motions in our current arena. We have to give it 100%, lest we get served ample servings of humble pie. As awful as humble pie tastes, it can do something for us that nothing else can—God can use it to redirect our words, actions, and hearts. It takes our eyes off of us and onto God.

Oh yes, it humbles—and that, friends, is exactly the point.

Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.