Heart of a servant
In the great example Jesus gave to the
disciples in John
John
John
John
John
One time back in the
seventies the Pastor of our church decided to hold a “foot washing” and so on a
Sunday evening service the men were to wash the feet of the men and the ladies
were to wash the feet of the ladies.
Our church had two
rows of pews so the ladies were on one side of the church and the men on the
other.
Now I was very young
in the Lords way at that time so I really did not know what to make of it at
the start. True I had read the gospels so I knew what the Lord had done, but
still it was a little strange, it just so happened that I drew my Pastor as a
foot washing partner so I washed his feet first and I had no feeling much about
that, but when it came to his washing mine I was very humbled by that
experience and I experienced what Peter experienced, who was I to allow my
Pastor to wash my feet and I came away from there humbled.
The thing was I got the
humble part but I did not get the realization part of what this is all about, I
learned how to be humble of spirit, but I did not learn the servants part in
it.
Learning to be humble
is a good thing but learning to be a servant is an even better thing. Like
Peter when the Lord told him he could have no part if he refused, I pretty much
said in my Christian youth, wanting to be a part of my Lord, not only my feet
but my head also. It seems all too easy to get the humble part but not the
servant part and so I went away not yet realizing the lesson I was supposed to
learn.
Since then I have
attended the college of hard knocks and although God taught me many things
through that hardship I still did not learn what I consider to be the most
important lesson, I learned to hear his precious voice and other things. So the
years passed by, this and that with God sometimes having to take a back seat to
the things I selfishly wanted to get accomplished in this world.
Finally I just quit
going to church, I couldn’t get any satisfaction out of it so I just pulled
back in among my computers and electronics and all the other things I had
learned to do, I was lonely in ways but in other way I didn’t need humanity
much, I hated to deal with people while computers were my friends, they were
not complicated like humans and computer logic was my orderly world.
So I sat there for
several years just having what contact with humanity I had to have in order to
survive. Oh, I still loved the Bible and I still loved the Lord, I still did my
best to hear his voice, I just worshipped more or less by myself and I was
perfectly satisfied without complicating my life with humans.
One morning as I sat
and thought on the things of God the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I knew very well
who it was who was doing the speaking, I had been listening to his voice long
enough to know. He said to me “Get up and get out and find yourself a church
and support it!” I said right back “Aw Lord, you know how I feel about people;
I am comfortable with Just me and you!”
But the conversation was over, I had been around Him long enough to know
He wasn’t going to argue, so I said “O.K. Lord, for you I will go and serve” so
I picked up the phone book and looked up the nearest church, I drove over and
found the one I thought I might like and drove past to get the lay of the land,
He didn’t say which one so I thought to try this one for a couple months and If
didn’t feel like it was the one for me I would just move on, to make a long
story short I moved to another church after two months, as I drove to the other
one I said “Lord now its getting skimpy already here and I ain’t
gonna drive 50 or 60 miles to church” we live in a small country setting with
the largest city 60 miles away. I did find where I felt the Lord wanted me to
be in that next church. But through all this time I went with the attitude of
the servant, I was determined to serve in whatever capacity that came my way,
with finances and whatever else if it was just my presence, whatever, and as I
did this I realized the lesson Jesus gave his disciples, I finally got it after
all those years, to serve others is the greater part. To give service to
others, to stoop low and to serve every day is the lesson he was giving with
that foot washing.
Since then God has
added so much I am beginning to lose track of the times I am able to minister
to some else. Not only that but he has taken away some of my quirks and I am
able to associate better with people.
So now when I go I am
able to go with a servant’s heart. Oh, people still seem complicated, their
lives are very complicated and much of the time I am too blunt and I feel like
a bull in a china closet and I am subject to mess up, but I am getting better.
I never go to receive
any more, I go to give of myself to the service of the Lord and in giving I
receive a hundred fold, think what I could have done with those years if I had
only gotten the full picture in the first place, but we can’t sit around crying
over the past, we have today and we must go on.
Now you may think “Why
didn’t you see it?” Now I observe those around me all the time who seem to who have not “Gotten it”.
The church pews are full of them, always going
to receive instead of give, they haven’t yet “Gotten it” it is so simple to
begin laying aside our desires for the sake of others and yet so hard to get
hold of. It’s a complete flip from the way we normally think. We don’t begin to
have a servant’s heart in a big way, we just begin, to
go, to support, to serve.
We can determine to go
on missions to the heart of
Back in those years I
wanted to serve in a greater way, but I failed to find a servants heart, I
failed to learn the greatest lesson of all time.
A lesson that could
turn this world upside down for Christ is still waiting to be learned by a
Christian world.
You see, if we desire
to be like him we must be like him and he came to serve, to give up his life
for the sake of others. A servant is not greater that his master.
