Growing up, I never had any allegiances to a NFL team. I LOVE(D) Gator football (SEC) and would enjoy watching most https://experience.tripster.ru/experience/Kazan/sights/ any college football game, but NFL just wasn’t as enjoyable for me. I didn’t see the same passion in the players as I saw in college players. More than anything, I suppose I just didn’t understand the differences.
Then I met my husband. Born in Denver, Colorado, he was bred to be a Broncos fan the same way I was bred to be a Gator fan. He taught me the game and over the past 8 years that we have been together, I have grown to enjoy the pro game and adopted the Broncos as my team.
Watching Super Bowl 48 has been…painful. We knew that the Seahawks were (are) ridiculously strong and anticipated a tough game. We did not anticipate being shut out until the 4th quarter. Especially when the Broncos were said to have the #1 offense in the league.
No, this post isn’t about sports. It’s about humility. This has been a road I have been navigating and stumbling down most of my life. While I know that I have come leaps and bounds (by the grace of God), it is something that I continue to fight against. I want to let everyone know and and for them to agree with me about the things that I love (Gator football for example). I want to be right. I want to be the best. I get all bent out of shape when people disagree with me, even over insignificant dumb things.
The reaction that that I battle is not Biblical, plain and (not so) simple.
Proverbs 18:12 says
Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
There is another saying that most people know:
Pride comes before the fall.
You know what? That’s also a Proverb (read 16:18) There are a lot of those throughout Scripture. Here’s a couple more…
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15:33)
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. (Proverbs 22:4)
What you may notice is that honor often accompanies humility. As someone who works with high school and college students, I strive to live my life with a great amount of integrity. To receive honor and maintain that integrity, I must be humble. It’s not something that I can achieve without it.
Beyond my own personal convictions, as a Follower of Jesus, it’s something that I am instructed to have as part of my arsenal.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14, emphasis mine)
If I am “putting on love” (which binds everything together), then I must have humility as well. I can not love well if I am prideful. That is a tough pill to swallow for someone who has reveled in that pride for so long. This is not to say that I cannot take pride in accomplishments, or my family, or whatever. This is talking about the pride like I mentioned before. Where I become resentful and harsh in my words and thoughts. There no way to glorify those actions. I desire to be more and more like Christ. I desire to be humble and to know the honor that comes from God alone. I want to be able to love purely and completely. And so I continue to strive toward those characteristics as I grow and learn.