"The highest position we can have within the kingdom of God holds a simple title: Servant."
These words (only altered slightly so as to make more sense to you all out of the context of the sermon) hit me square in the forehead one morning during my preacher's sermon.
Of course, I had heard it before. Several times, even! Not in so many words, but the idea has been said to me so many times, I couldn't count. Jesus actually said this first: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14b). Or later Paul says in Romans 12:3 "..I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." For someone like me, that's not a hard thing to take in. I have had the high title before. Though I got through it and was commended on my leadership skills, it is not a place I want to be in anytime soon. In fact, my favorite part about being a leader had nothing to do with the orders I gave out or the credit I was given for leading such a large group of people. My favorite part of leading was serving. I absolutely love to be behind the scenes, working my fingers to the bone and doing everything I can to bring the little details as close together as possible so that everything looks seamless. I can't get enough of that.
But.
I know you were waiting to hear that word. ;)
I love that job, however I don't think I even fully understood what it means to be a servant in the Lord's kingdom until a couple of weeks ago.
When I heard "servant," I thought of a man (or woman..) in a suit with silly penguin tails and holding a silver serving tray and standing silently in the corner until summoned. I may have thought of a waiter in a given restaurant as a servant to their customers; they juggle a lot of responsibility to make guests' experiences as nice as possible.
And then I went to camp. I would have loved to post about camp but something about that didn't feel right. I will say though, that camp this year was really eye opening. Our theme was Before His Throne and if I ever went to a camp where the theme meant something, this was it. The line that stuck with me was this: "You can not come before the throne of God and leave an unchanged person." Wow!
That's when I realized that the things I'd been wanting to fix, but hadn't fixed yet, were not getting fixed because I wasn't allowing myself to be changed by my experience before God's throne. I have since tried to change those things. Things like trusting God with my future, reading my Bible every single day, praying even more frequently than I thought would be "standard.."
I have since delved into my Bible and in the past two weeks alone, my entire view of things has changed. Including how I see being a servant. 1 and 2 Samuel is where I decided to start, and I'm glad I did because it's entirely applicable and it helped me to understand this point.
David started as a servant. Did you know the best leaders are also the best servers? David eventually came to be King. And many times, David and his servants were thrust into these difficult circumstances (much like we are faced with today). Each time, David turned to God and said (I'm paraphrasing here. Please, please read this for yourself!!) "I am your servant, I will do what you're telling me to do. This is hard, that is scary, I don't really know 'what's what' but I am your servant and I trust you." In another instance, a man who had literally become David's servant the day before picked his whole life up to follow David as he fled from his son Absalom. Observe: "Then the king said to Ittai the Gimmite, 'Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where?..' But Ittai answered the king, 'As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be'" (2 Samuel 15:18-22).
Mary had to have been scared to death when the angel of the Lord told her she'd conceive and give birth to a child. She was a virgin, she was young, and she stood to lose a lot if her integrity was seen as lost. "And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word'" (Luke 1:38)
Ruth had just lost her father-in-law, brother-in-law and husband. Naomi urged her to return home because she would have to find a way to take care of herself and there was no way she could promise to have the means to take care of her daughter-in-law as well. But Ruth stayed. She stayed knowing that Naomi could not promise to take care of her. Knowing that she'd have to move to another new place, one where she would be a foreigner. These famous words were spoken by Ruth: "'Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God'" (Ruth 1:16).
A servant is not a passive person waiting to be called on and told what to do. We don't sit in the corner in silence, nor do we always just 'do as we're told'. Servants trust. They act on integrity. They know what is right and they don't even think about hesitating to take up the challenges they're given.
This is the highest position we can take in the Lord's Kingdom.
Ladies, pull up your chairs at the servant's table and get ready for whatever is thrown your way. It will be a lot, but you will be rewarded.
Kat
"It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud." Proverbs 16:19
*All verses were taken from the English Standard Version*
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