TOPIC
Humility at the Heart of Servant Leadership
Handout: Learning Community Gathering #7

CONTENT

Learning Opportunities through Humility

“If I, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” - Jn 13:14-15

Jesus washing the feet of his disciples is the paragon of servant leadership: a downward movement of humble love to lift up the beloved. It is a dynamic of humility to build up those we serve. 

In the Christian imagination, humility is the process through which we learn to accept who we are before God: beloved sinners & trusted stewards of the gifts in our personal lives and world. This pilgrimage has three phases:

  1. Experiencing “humus” or “groundedness” - encountering something we may not want/like, even humiliation.

  2. Letting go of our identity - the shedding of who we perceive ourselves to be, others’ approval and expectations.

  3. Realizing a deeper sense of our identity before God (our belovedness) and an invitation to greater and surrender.

This process of humility, which involves lifelong learning, is essentially a dying to ourselves that Jesus models (Luke 9:23). We learn humility best through service and honest reflection in a genuine community. The more we allow ourselves to be seen and loved by others through real relationships marked by openness, honesty, and vulnerability, the more we allow God’s power to flow through us, which comes through powerlessness and humility.

“I kept on thinking that humility, reverence, and affectionate awe ought to be not fearful but loving. This took root in my mind so deeply that I begged over and over again: "Give me loving humility and with it reverence and affectionate awe.” - St. Ignatius of Loyola

PRAXIS

Week 1: Pray once or twice this week.

In a recent ministry/service, when have I noticed myself struggling with humility or being humiliated? I bring what I notice to prayer with Jesus for 10 minutes like the following:

  1. I imagine myself with Jesus in a space we both know well.

  2. I describe or show Jesus my struggle with humility.

  3. I listen to what Jesus has to say or show me.

  4. I practice Ignatian noting afterward. Practice Ignatian noting afterward.

Week 2:

Have a conversation with someone whom you deeply trust & ask, “In what area in my life I am not looking at or you notice I am afraid to face?” (Give the person some time to think about his or her response beforehand ). Try to listen with presence and tenderness, as described in the prior months. Practice Ignatian noting afterward.

Week 3: 

  1. Pray 1x week: Revisit any insight or experience from the previous weeks that you feel drawn to stay with longer. Ask God, “How did I allow your Spirit to work through me?” Practice Ignatian noting afterward.

  2. Pray EVERY morning: “Prayer for Good Humor” by Thomas Moore below:

    “Prayer for Good Humor”
    St. Thomas Moore

    Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
    Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
    Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
    and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
    but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
    Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
    nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
    Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
    Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
    and to be able to share it with others.
    Amen.