40-Days to Servanthood: Day 9

Servanthood moves us beyond ourselves.

The classic line of Bette Midler in the movie, Beaches, probably displays our unspoken attitudes. “Enough about me,” Midler says, “what do you think about me?” Experts on childhood development tell us that we come into this world deeply mired in ourselves.

Servants of Jesus Christ embrace a different way of life. They move beyond themselves. As we pointed out yesterday, this begins in Jesus Christ, Who both exemplifies a servant’s lifestyle and will empower those who want to be servants. People who move beyond themselves to be servants display three habits of life that we see in Jesus throughout the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Testament. (The gospels chronicle the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.) One of my favorite places to observe these three habits of Jesus is in Mark 1:29-39:

Mark 1:29-31: Jesus moved beyond what was comfortable to reach out to someone who was shoved into the corner of life. The fever of Simon’s mother-in-law was more than a physical ailment. Her illness denied her the dignity of her place as the eldest woman of the household, a place that included responsibility for overseeing the entertainment of guests.

Mark 1:35: Jesus reached up to God the Father for the power and inspiration to live faithfully.

Mark 1:38-39: Jesus ignored the easy path of popularity in order to do God’s will. Jesus turned His back on the safe and comfortable to face the path that was difficult and which, He knew, would result in His being rejected and killed (Luke 9:51).

Our call as followers of Jesus is to adopt these three habits of the heart: to encourage those shoved to the side by society; to reach up to God for inspiration, direction, and power; and to ignore the safe paths and be willing to go where we might be unpopular in order to follow God faithfully.

Servanthood moves us beyond ourselves.

Bible Passage to Ponder: “...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45, The Message).