Ep 4: Spirit of Learning & Balance of Humility • Nicaragua Video

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I am one of those people that truly enjoys a good learning curve.
I’m like, OK, OK, mmhm, got it, ok, can I try?

My thirst for knowledge is insatiable. But it comes at a price.

There’s a humility that must inevitably come with learning anything new. In order to get better at something – you have to first try.

And your first try might be bad. Real bad. It might be downright embarrassing.

But as it is with all things- pickaxing, making friends, running down a volcano or speaking Spanish… you never get better until you start.

My chance to try something new arose when the foreman of the school building project, Jeff, asked for a volunteer to read the devotional of the day in Spanish.

I know my Spanish is bad. But no one else volunteered and God made me bold. I also knew that everyone had to be nice to me since I just got out of the hospital.

I heard the kids giggle when I made mistakes and I thought to myself that it was good for them to hear an American struggle with a language that comes so easily to them.

We are the same. Just different. And uniquely created by the One who made the stars and the moon and the oceans and volcanoes.

On the work sites, we learned to swing pickaxes and shovels. We learned routes to visit friends in the community.

And Aaron and I learned a few ways not to get to the closest coffee shop.

We had to humbly ask Bob to guide us.

God asks us to have the spirit of a seeker. People actively pursuing a relationship with Him. A fuel that burns within us.

This takes humility. Following Jesus ain’t always easy. What the Bible tells us to do feels like “opposite day” when contrasted with the world we live in. It makes no sense and it’s impossible to do without Him.

CS Lewis says we don’t know how bad we are until we have tried our hardest to be good. I know this to be true first hand.

And that’s where grace comes in. The grace that Jesus bestows on us is to be extended to others. Some people make this really tough. So it is good to put ourselves in a position to extend and receive grace. It’s good practice in our effort to be more Christ-like.

We have to start somewhere.

We are growing or we are dying. Trying new things keeps us young, and fresh and humble.

We ARE going to make mistakes today. So let’s just try to make better mistakes tomorrow.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Philippians 2:3-4

Watch more videos! Find links to the Nicaraguan series here.

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