Thursday, April 17, 2014

The Leader Who Served

Jesus did something the night before his crucifixion that wrecked the disciples. He had told them over and over about serving others, and had served many, many times in their three years together, but they still didn't get it. One last time, he showed them what love is, and
how much he loved them by serving: taking to himself the duty of a household slave, and washing their feet.

He didn't have to do that. He could have just taught them again with words, or corrected their attitudes with a parable. Instead, he became the parable. He took water in a basin and washed their dirty, smelly extremities. His love didn't hold on to how things were supposed to look or what someone might think. It just served.

How can you serve someone else, today, from the love that Jesus displayed? What can you do to lay down your pride, your position, your power, your rights and your separate self, and give to someone else in that same love?  And of course, that love isn't yours, that you have to drum up. It's his love, that he gives you. You get to choose whether to exercise it by giving it away. Will you?

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