The Great Annual Examen: Introducing the Posture of Humility
January feels like the worst of months to start a new year. The days and weeks following the holidays, often grey and chilly, provoke in me a haunting loneliness. This month’s frigid weather and winter illnesses seem only add to the bleh. Do you feel this too? No wonder well-intentioned resolutions often fall by the wayside by the end of January.
On the bright side, however, the start of a new year also prompts us to reflect and remember, to lament and to give thanks, to take stock, and, perhaps, to cut our losses and start fresh.
This year, for the first time, I am working my way through The Great Annual Examen: An Exercise to Look Back, Look Within, and Look Forward. This resource, developed by Stephen W. Smith, President and Spiritual Director of The Potter’s Inn, includes a brief introduction and several pages of reflective questions and prompts for remembering, responding, and renewal. If you need something to help you as you consider the year ahead, it is not too late—the Great Annual Examen is a great place to start. I have decided to take my time, which is unusual for me, so the examen continues.
Over the past few weeks, inspired by simple questions, I have looked back over 2023. I have referenced my google calendar and photos, notes and journals to help jog my memory. These simple exercises have served to remind me of some of the ordinary and extraordinary events that shaped the year. I traveled to new places, made new friends, and stretched the limits of my scholarship and leadership. On a more personal level, I’ve also spent the past year contemplating the posture of humility—an exercise that continues to provoke some soul-searching.
This Spirit-instigated emphasis on humility, along the way, led to some well-timed, deeply formative, and kind of hard conversations. I can see a little more clearly now, how God, in some of the most unexpected places, has been teaching me humility.
The year-long emphasis on humility has underscored the significance of God’s authority in even the most mundane tasks. Furthermore, I am beginning to understand that the presence or absence of humility primarily depends on how we view God and our place in the True Story, which in turn, informs our relationship with ourselves, others, and the world around us.
So, one way I plan to put the Annual Examen into practice is to invite you to join the conversation as I work out my learning in words. This series will, I hope, highlight the significance of God’s authority in the everyday stuff of life and demonstrate how a counter-cultural, perhaps even subversive, posture of humility makes way for the gospel.
