Saturday, November 03, 2007

Servanthood sacrifices self.

Spoke this morning at our monthly men's breakfast. Good atmosphere, good group of guys and good food. Nice way to start a Saturday -- even if it requires me to awaken much, much earlier than I'd like on a Saturday!

The struggle to pursue servanthood begins with our decision to sacrifice self. We all struggle with selfishness. I'm most selfish in the morning, around Round Table Pizza and in Best Buy. I'm sure you have your own place where the ME-FIRST attitude kicks in strongly. God's plan is for us to live lives that benefit and serve the people around us. That doesn't mean we have low self-esteem or ignore our needs. But it means we make a choice to live less of a life that is focused on just us. If we try to be #1 in all areas of life, then we're missing the boat when it comes to servanthood.

Pursuing that lifestyle requires sacrifice, just like it requires sacrifice for a lot of us to get to the gym. It reminds me of the people I've been watching on "Everest: Beyond the Limit" on Discovery Channel. These folks make huge sacrifices just to get an attempt at climbing Mt Everest. Pursuing a lifestyle of servanthood requires sacrifice, just like Jesus Himself made the ultimate sacrifices for us. Philippians 2 reminds us that He demonstrated ultimate humility by taking on human form and then dying on the cross. We must sacrifice self to become servants.

Jesus should be the greatest role model for anyone wearing the label of Christian, of Christ-follower. He told us in Mark 10 that He came to serve others, not to be served. Let's face it: If anyone should have been served, it was Jesus! He deserved it because He's God! But He chose a different path. He chose to serve others, and that should be our goal. Servanthood is a lifestyle and an attitude. If we want servanthood, we must choose to sacrifice self.

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