Who Really Wants to Be a Servant?

Here lately, I've been reflecting a lot on what I want out of life.  One thing that I've thought a lot about are times when I was sure that I deserved something, sure that I would see it happen, just for it to not happen.... Or at least not the same way that I thought it would. 

If your a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that about a year and a half ago, I transferred into a new role at my job.  After I was offered the job, it took nearly 2 months before I actually started working in the new role.  The hold up was compensation.  I felt like the Lord was working out a way that I could get an increase of about 15%.  Heck, I had already calculated how much extra I would see in each paycheck.  Then I was told that because this move would be lateral, then my pay grade and salary would stay the same.  Something I was so sure that God was behind the scenes orchestrating for MY good came to a screeching halt.  Oh yeah, I was happy to be moving on to something more fulfilling and challenging, but I was still pretty sour about not getting the increase.

So what was the problem?  How did this happen?  Did I not have enough faith?  Was I not obedient enough?  Or was there a lesson that I needed to learn? 

Over the next 6 months, I would learn a ton that I never knew about managing projects.  I was hired to be a business analyst, but was thrust into project management.  Then I got a new boss because we went through a corporate re-org.  For the next 8 months, I had the challenge of doing the best that I could to manage my work life with my home life.  At times I worked upwards of 16 hours a day.  I was always tired, sometimes things would inevitably fall through the cracks at work and the Mrs. was missing me.  I was at the end of my rope praying for some type of relief.  It was just about time to start looking for another job that would help me regain some semblance of balance in my life.  Then it happened.  The last step for my position happened rather swiftly and all the PM's in my company were centralized.  Now we could spread the wealth across the company and not be tied down to managing projects for 1 product.  Work is finally peaceful again.  Now time to get to the point.

Sometimes, we're seemingly overlooked for things that we THINK we deserve.  I deserve a raise.  I deserve a promotion.  I deserve a better house.  I deserve to have children, but honestly, apart from the Grace of God, I truly deserve death, which is something that I should respect more. 

Just when we think we have a descent understanding of how God operates, we find out how much we really don't know.  Even if by human standards you are the most qualified, the most deserving of something, it may not always pan out that way.  Check this out from Ecclesiastes 9.

I have seen something else under the sun:  
The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.  Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:  
As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

For some reason I thought that this scripture said something about how the race isn't given to the swift or the strong, but to the ones who endure til the end.  Guess I heard it in a song or something.  But what it really talks about is how nothing tied to your own human ability is guaranteed.  Sometimes what you want to happen or the way that you want it to happen may not be part of God's plan for your life.  Somewhere inside of this thick head of mine, I know this, but nevertheless, I still get disappointed when things don't go according to My plan.

Which leads me to this?  More money, Bigger Position, More Visibility has the potential to lead to Less God.  Why do I deSERVE anything if I haven't even begun to master the commandment to be a servant?  Why am I so concerned about being Great among men when there is NO scriptural value for such a man?

Yet, Mark 10: 42-45 says this:

And Jesus called to them and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  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."

Jesus' first job while on this earth was not display his Majesty as King, yet it was and IS to love and SERVE people.  This is a problem.  I would think that when it comes to serving others, we are WAY out of balance.  We probably spend less than 5% of our free time truly serving others.  Then we wonder why the world is in the condition that it is.  Probably because we spend so little time doing the most basic thing that Jesus commands us to do.   Maybe it's because serving others is not a always a glamorous job.  Most opportunities to serve present themselves during a time when no one is around to see your good deed or there's no one there to team-up with to give you the encouragement to do the right thing.  Sure, we THINK that God wants us to be the one's that own the business, not the one who cleans it up after everyone goes home for the day.  God easily favors the Servants of the world over the CEO's. 

So, I'm working to change a few things and step my game up a notch.  Working on doing a better job of being first a servant at home to my wife and children, and then a servant of the people.  That doesn't mean that I won't continue to work hard to be a provider for my family, but my identity will be that of a blessed servant.  I will work to be more conscious of serving those that I work with.  I will work to be more mindful of my surroundings and LOOK for ways to be of service.  It could be as simple as buying dinner for the guy at work who just lost his wife and having a hard time making ends meet...or helping that pregnant lady put her groceries in the car. 

I challenge you to do the same.