Servant Mentality

Thirty-five years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong.  It was for a job interview with the University there and even though Asian culture holds no interest to me, I was interested in living in Hong Kong as it was a great jumping off point for all of the South Pacific, which I did have a strong interest in.  So, I called up my sister and my American grandmother and asked them if they wanted to come along!

We had a wonderful time!  One night we dined at a  French restaurant in the belly of our hotel.  It was the finest French meal I have ever had and you have to remember I lived in France for several years and many times more in Europe.  The food was simply perfect, however, the service was frustrating!

Behind each of us stood three servers.  One handled drinks, one the dinner service and one was clean up.  Take a sip of water and instantly the water was replaced!  If you struggled with something, deft hands would suddenly appear and cut or re-arrange it for you!  Eat a roll, get a new roll!  You get the idea, very stifling knowing that every word, every movement was observed and responded to by these unseen people these hands were attached to!

A true servant is hardly noticed at all.  He is hidden, in this case by an overly dark dining room.  Naturally, if the servant does his job correctly, the restaurant will get all of the credit and you would not even know who it was whom served you!  And he/she will have done their job correctly.

Our purpose in life is to bring honor to God, not seek it from mankind.  God will honor us when the time is right and in the manner of His choosing.  The praise of man brings with it pride.  There is no way to avoid it, it seems to be built into us (or at least me!).  And pride is one of the three biggies that God goes out of His way to condemn.  Yeah, it is hard not to be proud when you are so awesome (cough, cough, cough!).  And God also goes out of His way to remind those whom grow proud, how easily it is to humble them and how great our need really is of Him.  (sigh...)

It is un-mankind like for us to rejoice when someone else succeeds, when someone else gets the praise we know we deserve!  It is even harder when someone else is getting the praise for what we did, not what they did!  These glory seekers ultimately will not get theirs in the end, because God says that they, like the pharisees, have the admiration of men - all of the reward they will ever receive!

God wants us to do our deeds in secret, such that no one knows whom did what, praise is mis-directed to others, even our left hand does not know what the right just did!  That is pretty secret!  But, God knows and He will do as He will do in our lives to reward us now, or in the future.  His choice, his reward.  Very mysterious.

Of course, God tells us to, no commands us, to be LOVING, to be His SLAVE literally, to be FORGIVING, to REACH out to a world of lost and dying mankind, in their sin.  The reason we are left on this planet is to DO!  Do what God has instructed us to do - in general, for all of us - love, be a slave, be forgiving, witness to a lost and dying world.  He did not create any of us for the bagging groceries, planting potatoes, to be deep sea fishermen, or even computer programmers.  However, He does allow all of these approaches to take care of ourselves via - just so we do not lose sight of what our ultimate goal really is - to do His work.

If you think of Jesus or any of the Apostles, they sure did not spend 100% of their time in the pursuit of worldly goods.  Just enough to further their work was all which was needed.  We are surrounded by a world which is watching, waiting for us to stumble, waiting for us to show we are no different than them, then satisfied they can live their lives without God, because we failed.

Who we are, what we do, how we live, our attitude towards others in the Body and to the lost, our priorities will either be a witness to the truth of Jesus or the lure of the world.  Many I know would never be caught dead in a church, the only sermon they are ever going to hear is from you living your life.  You are God's messenger, you are God's ambassador, you are to be His living message to all around you.  (II Corinthians 6:3-4)

Conversely, fill your life with bitterness, anger, lust, dishonesty, laziness, lying, etc! and the people around you will know not only are you a "Christian" but that there is no advantage, no difference to be found in being one.....

So, the point is - DO! what you are told to do in Scripture - be Loving, be a Slave to God, be Forgiving, be a Witness!

Sure, you might have other things God lays on your heart to do as well, but not as a substitute for any of those four things.  But, as a servant, there is no ad lib'ing!  If He is not in charge you are just wasting your time because you already have been told where you are to be and what you are to be doing.  Be those four things and then there might be extra assignments as well - but not until you are faithful in the little we are told to do and be.