From Pride to Humility
From Theory to Practice

College is in full swing. I'm starting to have exams. Projects are starting to be due. So what do I do for the weekend? I go to the Generations Bible Study Retreat in Santa Barbara.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the extreme pleasure of attend Generations, a GComm college group Bible Study held at the home of Bob & Teri White in Northridge. The study not only contains college students, but everyone from seminary students to the elderly.

Last weekend at the Cabrillo Inn at the Beach, we had a great time of fun, food, relaxing at the beach, playing midnight Mafia, and learning great truths from God's Word. The main topics of discussion for the weekend were pride and humility.

The first night Joey Newton lead the bible study on the topic of pride. We looked at pride all the way back to the fall of Satan and the Garden of Eden. I was confronted by the atrocity that pride is--dethroning God and seeking to put myself in his position. Joey also went through a list of 30 manifestations of pride, taken from a Stuart Scott pamphlet. I winced many times as I saw the different manifestations. Unlike many other sins we think of, pride is so subtle and can easily creep into our judgment. Therefore, we must constantly be guarding against it, be developing a high view of God, and be practicing humility.

In the last session of the weekend, Bob White lead the study on humility, also accompanied with a list of manifestations of humility (also adapted from Scott.) The two studies helped me to see the evil of pride and the necessity of humility. Pride becomes so much more terrifying when we grasp its full implications. Also, the handouts were very helpful to me because they helped me not only realize the necessity of putting off pride and on humility, but also see practical ways I can do this.

We all struggle with pride--we are madly in love with ourselves. May we all worship God alone, for he will not share his glory with another. And let us take practical steps to turn pride into humility in our own lives.

I just realized one thing about the new comment guidelines. It could very well be that you are somewhat apprehensive about putting something with your name on it out there on the world wide web. Therefore, feel free to e-mail me any time at stepontoliquid@yahoo.com. I hope that isn't too hard to remember.