Leadership Thought: The Day I Discovered I Wasn’t a Servant.     

Dear Friends,

A well-dressed woman on an African safari was part of a tour group that stopped at a hospital for lepers. Amid the intense heat and filthy conditions with flies buzzing all around her, she noticed a nurse bending down in the dirt, tending to the puss filled sores of a leper. With disdain she exclaimed, “Why.  I wouldn’t do that for all the money in the world. The nurse replied, “Neither would I.”

From time to time it is important to remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are. We are nothing more than “unprofitable servants,” who are doing only what our Master has called us to do (Luke 17:10). Following Jesus may not take us to an African leper colony, but that doesn’t change the terms or conditions of our service for once a servant always a servant. Wherever we are, we are called to serve, and service is not always fun or easy. It can be hard and humbling, dirty and demeaning.

I remember the times when I was a senior pastor, and I had no problem cleaning up dirty bathrooms. When I saw something that needed to be done, no matter how menial it was, I did it. Because of this, I thought I had somehow arrived at this “servant thing.”  But when I became one of 17 pastors while serving at Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale, and I was no longer a top the pecking order, I discovered my servant attitude needed a severe adjustment. It is one thing to be a servant when you can choose the time or place of your service. It is another thing when you are charged and required to be a servant, and someone else above you is treating you like a servant, the very thing you are called to be.

A businessman in a bible study asked the leader, “How do you know if you are a servant?” The leader wisely responded, By the way you react when you are treated like one.” That hurt!!!!!!

The Apostle Peter reminds us of our “servant job description” when he writes we are to serve “not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:2-3).

So,  I guess I need to grab my broom and start sweeping. Won’t you join me?

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom