Building Community

The Humility of Jesus

As we move into this Advent season, we followers of Jesus are prepared to worship a newborn king, born in a manger. The images we have in our minds of Mary and Joseph in a dirty stable surrounded by farm animals are humble images, to say the least. Philippians 2: 7-8 reminds us that Jesus’ entire life was filled with humble service. 

 7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature[a] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
 8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

This model of humility is counter-cultural. We live in a world that places the highest value on personal achievements and recognition. We open our phones to social media pages where each one of us shares our best moments with the world. As our students would say, everyone is trying to be the “G.O.A.T.” (ask your student if you don’t know what that means)! At times I may be guilty of this as well, often sharing about amazing programming, highlighting our academic achievements, championships on the athletic field, and prowess on the stage. One could easily infer that the main goal of our Christian education is excellence — the best facilities, the most championships, the most college scholarships, and so on. On the surface, this seems to be a troublesome dichotomy of the faith.

Our Eagle Blueprint asks students to make a commitment to their personal best in all areas of their lives. Can we both strive for personal best and seek to teach our students to live lives of humble service as Jesus did? The answer is an emphatic “yes!” This is one of the things that I love most about Christian education and our school in particular. We seek to provide our students with many opportunities to unwrap their God-given gifts and get a closer look at how they might use their gifts to glorify God. We get to walk alongside them and remind them that these gifts are not simply to be used for personal gain, but rather to serve Christ through humble service to those around them. They also get to see the unique gifts and talents of their peers and consider how those gifts can be used to build the Kingdom of God. 

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Please join me in praying that whether our students write essays, start businesses, compete on the court, build surfboards, travel the world, build 3D models, perform on the stage, dissect things, speak second languages, make music, solve complex equations, or intern in the community, they are doing so in loving union with a God who humbled himself here on earth and showed us what it means to serve.

—Brad