Humility

Lucy Holt

My class have been prepping for our turn to do an assembly this week. The theme we have been given is 'humility' so this something I have been thinking about in the deep way that you have to when you discuss with eleven years olds.

We learnt that the word humility comes from the Latin word for earth 'humis', which also gives us the idea of describing someone who is humble as 'grounded'.

The Bible passage we have chosen is Philippians 2: 3-8, which the students liked in The Message translation:

Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that - a crucifixion.
(Philippians 2: 3-8, MSG)

We were also inspired by the C.S. Lewis quote:

True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.

It has been interesting to discuss with a group of young people what this means to them, how social media and influencers constantly make themselves look popular and important, and this can make ordinary lives feel less.

During Lent it is helpful to reflect on humility and how Jesus, the most important human who ever lived, put the focus on others and treated with dignity people who were often looked down on by their peers.

Humility isn't about being negative about ourselves or deflecting all praise. All of us have gifts and abilities, and it is healthy to be able to recognise the things we are good at and enjoy.

Humility is about holding lightly to how important we seem to others, knowing that our value to God isn't linked to how successful we appear.