Humility

So in my most recent blog I mentioned that I would be writing about my artwork and Nav notes among other things. That was many many months ago. The talk on Humility was actually at the end of the school year but was a great talk that the Holy Spirit used in my heart as well as others. I have to admit it was brilliant though, God usually is…

I spoke on how there are several different ideas as to what humility is, only one of which is biblical and an accurate representation of how God desires for us to be humble. To display these types of humility in a way we could all remember, I set up a skit and used my artwork to bring it all together. The skit was an art competition; I used three different pieces and had an actor at each piece then a judge roaming and asking questions. The first would respond to questions as if their piece of art belongs in the trash, unsure as to why they entered the competition in the first place. They would ‘humbly’ explain that there were plenty of other pieces of artwork better than theirs and that they did it so quickly that it doesn’t look as perfect as it should. The next would ‘humbly’ explain that very famous people, like Oprah, offering thousands of dollars; have bid on their piece of work but they refused the offer in attempts at humility. The third would show true godly humility describing how the image came from God and that it was truly an amazing piece of art but they had nothing to do with it. They would attribute all goodness to God, all the colors and details… everything.

I then shared about humility in scripture and how God desires for us to brag on Him rather than ourselves. How He desires for us to not look down on ourselves, speak lies or even discouraging words but rather attribute all good things to Him.
I ended by confessing the fact that I myself had been practicing all kinds of false humility and revealed the fact that all the artwork was actually mine. I can say that it all looks amazing, I don’t have to try and be humble by saying that it doesn’t look good but I can brag on God as He did give me the image to paint that He gave all the perfect colors and tools to make it, even that He blessed me with creativity to put it all together. It was great; freeing for me and freeing for others and was encouraging for us to use our gifting to the fullest all to the glory of God.
These are the paintings I used to illustrate my point!


Another thing I mentioned was the differences in the paintings. The first two were the earliest (high school/college) and are more abstract. Why? Well if I paint abstract objects you can't really tell when I mess up... it will always look good! But then the last two (late college and after) were truly pictures that God gave me in my mind to paint. Then I prayed as I painted asking for His help. They would not be good apart from Him. Good testimony of confidence in Christ and true humility.