In January, I committed to learning about humility for the whole year, Ll 12 months. My church in Greeley, Journey Christian Church, challenged everyone to pick a word that you would bring before God and focus on for the entire year. I would like to say that I chose "humility" but in reality, God chose that word for me. And let me just tell you, you'd better mean it when you tell God you want to learn about humility. Because He won't play around with that stuff.
It might be useful to begin with a brief summary of my 2017 so we both have an idea of my life events:
I wrapped up my freshman (sophomore?) year at UNC! It was an insane semester but I grew a heck ton. I went on a mission trip with Navs to Phoenix, AZ. I was chosen to be on leadership for The Navigators. I crowdsurfed for the first (and last) time. My brother and I road tripped to Salt Lake City because we had it in our minds that In-n-Out was worth a 9 hour drive there and back. (it wasn't.) Overall, quality semester.
Over the summer I did an internship with Open Door Ministries in Denver, CO. I wrote a series of 4 blog posts about that summer. So read those if you want to know about what I did and what I learned!
This fall semester was without a doubt the most difficult time of my life so far. I was faced with a lot of loneliness and feelings of inadequacy (more on that later). But a lot of really amazing things happened this semester like my incredible boyfriend and all the new friendships I formed and the freshmen in the Bible study I get to lead! So I can still say that God is faithful and good in all he does.
Throughout the year, God has shown me that my struggle with the sin of pride is truly a heart problem. Throughout my whole life I have learned what a humble person looks like; I'm good at playing the part. In 2017 God has shown me the many different forms pride takes in my life. He has shown me the ugly insides to all my actions and all my motivations. He has opened my eyes to the reality of my humility facade that had even me fooled. As I was reflecting, I was able to look at the specific ways I've grown and separate them into 3 categories:
- Humility in leadership
- Humility in my relationships with people
- Humility in my relationship with God
I want to dedicate a separate blog post to each of these categories so that our collective reflection on the practical implications can be more fruitful and I won't feel like I need to leave anything out.
We will begin with leadership where I believe my pride is most obviously seen, then move on to my relationships with other people where I'll discuss my loneliness and how that relates directly to pride, and end with my relationship with God which is the most important and most influential to all aspects of my life.
I'm really excited to dive right into my year of humility and remind myself of everything God has done this year and I hope you enjoy coming along with me!
Much love,
Amanda
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