Humility... And How I (Haven't) Achieved It!

HUMILITY ... AND HOW I (HAVEN'T) ACHIEVED IT!

About three weeks ago, a fellow staff member here at KESWICK, Lynne Jahns, spoke to a group at one of our monthly Breakfast Network meetings. Her topic...humility. I remember sitting there before she started, thinking to myself, "That's a really tough one." But she was wonderful, approaching it, not so much from humility as an attitude of servanthood, but as an acknowledgement that if God wasn't the central focus of what she did and why she did it, anything at all that she did (even to serving here at KESWICK) was done from the wrong motivation and perspective. I can only say she hit w-a-a-a-y to close to home.

Being at America's KESWICK has proved to be a challenge for me in a lot of areas in the two years or so that I have been here. And one of those areas has been in that of humility. When I came to KESWICK, it was from a position I had held for nearly 20 years. I came with all my credentials and had plaques all over my office walls letting everyone know I had "arrived." I came here thinking, "Boy, are they lucky to have ME!" Was I in for a surprise! Yes, I was appreciated but I wasn't the center of attention and soon discovered that life did not revolve around Lynn Randall. I

'm still learning that, which is, of course, part of what prompts me to write this. I am a "people person." I thrive on being around people and love to interact with them. And as I do, I find it so very easy to pick up their praise or compliments for what I am doing and attribute it to me and fail to acknowledge (at least to myself) that whatever I am able to "do" here has not so much to do with my abilities, but with how I choose to serve God with whatever abilities and skills He either has given me or allowed me to learn. Pride sneaks in so easily and I find myself being flattered by other's praise. But it isn't about me, or what I "bring" to KESWICK.

As Lynne Jahns pointed out so wisely, it is about my heart's right attitude before God. If I am flattered at all, let it be because God has given me gifts and abilities that I am able to use for His glory - not my own praise. Proverbs 6:16 and 17 says, "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination to Him: a PROUD look...." Galatians 6:14: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Dear God, today I pray that you will make me humble before you and break down my prideful heart. Whatever I am able to do is because of You and not because of myself.And keep this prayer in my heart every minute because it is SO EASY for me to forget. Lynn Randall is Director of Human Resources at America's KESWICK