DAY 72Mark 9:14- Luke 1:80
Mark 10:43-45 "But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
There are numerous things in our lives that out of nowhere change the direction we are taking. Some of these are called "significant emotional events." Some of these are a death in the family, a car accident, a major injury, a loss of a job, a major geographical move, or our conversion experience.
Other things aren't so major, but still have a major impact on our lives. A talk with a parent, advice from a friend, a new church, and even a book.
One of these major experience for me happened in 1996 when someone handed me a copy of Bill Hybels Descending into Greatness, which is a commentary on Phillipians 2. For today, I thought I would share a few quotes from that book.
"What concerns Him (God) is upward mobility as defined by the world: to promote ourselves, to advance our own cause, to push our own agenda at the expense of others. The end goal is to arrive at the top of the heap with enough money, power, and material possessions to feed one's main objective: self indulgence." (p.20)
Self-indulgence. It is an attitude (and sin) that affects and infects all of our lives. It consumes every action and choice we make. Have you ever caught yourself saying, "Well, I deserve this." Especially when it comes to recognition or a possession. Even when it comes to "Christian" things self-indulgence creeps in. We want to be the one making the decisions. When we go to church, we want to be served instead of serve.
In this very passage of scripture, James and John are wanting to sit on the right and left of Jesus in glory. Too many times we want to be the head of the table, instead of the one doing the dishes. In many parts of scripture, Jesus points to a different way of life. Instead of going up, He wants us to go down.
"Greatness is not a measure of self-will, but rather self abandonment. Descending into greatness seems absurd" It involves "demotion, anonymity, servanthood, downscaling, decreasing, losing, and dying" (p.17)
"He challenged His followers to embrace their uniqueness and pursue the dreams God had given them. But losing does mean that we allow God to determine what needs are legitimate. Losing means to yield our desires and passions to His guidance; to invite Him to chip away the rough edges of our personalitites; to use our gifts without seeking applause; and to allow Him to conform our dreams to His will." (p.21)
Unfortunately, very few of us find this downward spiral into greatness. The truth is that God has called each one of us to surrender our self-indulgence - to die to ourselves. He has called each one of us to serve Him for His glory. He has called each one of us to serve a lost and dying world by ministering to their needs.
Can you imagine how that could change a church, a community if there were an abundance of servants? If every need that was expressed, was met. It would look at lot like the early church in Acts.
