Our Lives Are in Your Hands
A feeling of humility usually comes to a person when he feels completely lost, and all “solutions” have been exhausted. He feels that everything is crashing, and now he begins to trust in Hashem because has been humbled—for he truly feels as if he has nothing. The Chazon Ish would explain it this way: A person reaches rock bottom—he knows that he truly has no recourse and no solution on his own to the big problems in his life. (When it comes to small problems, he is willing to settle for them not to go his way: but we are talking about big problems. Feeling lost humbles a person.)
In this situation, when a person says, “I rely on the Ribbono shel Olam,” his statement is rooted in humility. It means that he is done with his ga’avah. He has already tried everything, and he is now ready for the truth, for reality.
When a person feels like he has nothing left but Hashem, he feels much more elevated. If a person experienced this and felt elevated, then even if he strays from this attitude after a while, he still remembers who he really is, and Whom he really depends upon. But if a person is caught up in the klipah of illusory identities...his persona is based upon his “successes” and the things that he can show to himself and to others...at the siyum haShas he sat here, he has such and such a position... this-and-this person respects him, and so forth... he has no idea who he really is. This person is truly broken, and in need of so much chizuk... he is entirely empty.
