The Way of a Servant

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 2:3-5

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

- Mark 9:35

This day could only be characterized by disorientation: forgetting things, losing things, and generally feeling incompetent at work. Could anything else possibly go wrong? Half-jokingly, I told my client today, "I think you'll have to fire me!" He looked at me intently, and thoughtfully replied with stammering, slurred speech, "Dallas, I could never do that." Then with his tremoring arm raised for dramatic effect he shouted at the top of his lungs, "You're the best!" 

Truth to tell - always given to hyperbole - my client says the same thing to all of his support workers. Yet, his encouraging (though admittedly exaggerated) words were entirely sincere and convincing. There is no contradiction in his eyes: I am the best from his perspective, as are many other significant people in his life, and he was simply but profoundly lifting me up and honouring me above himself. Following Jesus, "the servant of all", he was humbly stooping down to lift me up. As a humble servant of God he looked up to me and saw something in me that I couldn't see on my own. 

What a gift to the world, an expression of freedom in Christ, not the "freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, to serve one another in love." (Galatians 5:13) A freedom not defined by anything-goes self-indulgence, but by the capacity to lay down one's life for another. 

What a stunningly simple picture of the depths of God's love for us. It sends the mind spinning: The downward, humbling, self-sacrificial path of servanthood; carrying our burdens all the way to the cross and raising us to new life in Christ.

God loves and values each of his beloved children without favoritism, and still you are uniquely special and precious in His eyes, as if His eyes were only on you. There is no theological contradiction, and no need to overcomplicate the way of a servant. At that moment I really did feel like I was "the best", along with all the many other loved ones he's served and shared his life with.