Serving and humility…
It seems I really can’t see one without finding the other…and, I’m recognizing Elisabeth Elliot definitely understood this principle! Her thought on the matter has convicted me for some time!
Of course, I’ve been running across a lot of quotes and different memes on humility as I’ve been studying the what and the why and the how of “humble.”
But I recognize I really never understood servanthood at all…
In the very first post on this topic, I wrote this:
We are never more like the enemy of our souls (Satan), than when selfish pride gets in our way.
I believe it!
But, I also believe this:
We are never more like Jesus than when we are humbly serving, with little thought to ourselves.
Humility and serving go hand in hand; but, how do you react, I wonder when you serve…and…..NOTHING….
What happens when those you serve see what you are doing, but don’t care?
Worse, what happens when they actually treat you like a servant?
I might think I have a servant’s heart; I might even convince you I do; but, deep inside I know better.
I like the pats on the back.
I like the words of encouragement.
I like being noticed.
Until, it stops, and then I need to do more serving, for more pats on the back, positive affirmation, and gratitude.
Pride is like that –
Pride is never satisfied.
It’s greedy.
It needs more and more and more.
Not so, humility.
Humility takes no thought to what it receives.
It’s willing, like Moses, to serve in obscurity; and, not only willing, but CONTENT to do so!
Contentment: a heart at rest that accepts, and is even able to flourish, in spite of circumstances.
Did you see those two words? Accepts. Flourishes.
Imagine!
With this in mind, the following poem by Ruth Harms Calkin has been at the forefront of my brain for the last several weeks.
I keep looking at it.
Maybe if I look at it long enough, I can, by osmosis, serve more like Jesus.
The poem is titled, I WONDER:
You know, Lord, how I serve You
With great emotional fervor in the limelight…
You know how eagerly I speak for You at a women’s club…
You know how I shine when I promote a fellowship group.
You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study.
But how would I react, I wonder,
If you pointed to a basin of water
And asked me to wash the calloused feet,
Of a bent, broken, and wrinkled old woman,
Day after day
Month after month,
In a room where nobody saw
And nobody knew.
Jesus gave us an example to follow.
In John 13, He gets up from the table where He’s about to eat a meal with His disciples, picks up a towel, wraps it around His waist, grabs a basin of water and washes the filthy feet of His students.
Why would He do this? These very men would run when He got arrested…
One would betray Him for 30 pieces of silver ( the price of a slave).
Another would deny he even knew the Master. Not once, three times!!!
Why? Because we are to follow His example, and…be blessed in the doing (John 13:14-17).
