servanthood

Luke 17 

7 “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, 

does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 

8 No, 

he says, 

‘Prepare my meal, 

put on your apron, 

and serve me while I eat. 

Then you can eat later.’ 

9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? 

Of course not. 

10 In the same way, 

when you obey me you should say, 

‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

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We have SUCH a success orientation when it comes to being "a servant of the Lord."

(Btw, whenever I hear someone sanguinely say, "All I want to be is a servant of the Lord," I think to myself, "you've never been one...")

Since Christianity in the US has such a strong middle class ethic, we have assumed that obvious, measurable "success" is guaranteed.

Sorry, that's not the reality.

For much of our lives we will simply not know what kind of impact who & what we are has had on people.

My friend, Beth White, used to sometimes describe people as "having a strong sense of entitlement." 😁

That describes us middle class Christians here in the US - essentially, we think God is lucky to have us, that He is supposed to explain to us WHY He's telling us to be or do something, how long it will take, & what the foreseeable outcome is going to be - AND that everyone will recognize our stupendous & humble sacrifice for being & doing what the Lord has chosen for us.

Sorry - that's just not the way it is.

Lots of the time as "servants of the Lord" we will be clueless as to what's going on. 

Servants don't get explanations - they get orders, & lots of the time we won't know the "why" of it.

In my life, especially for the last 25 years, 6 words have dominated my conversations with God.

Those 6 words have been, & will continue to be, "You want me to do WHAT?!"

 (Isn't that a holy response? 😇)

Servants serve. 

I believe we've lost sight of that. 

I guess it's a trust thing - if we choose to follow Jesus & serve Him then there's gonna be a ton of times when we simply do as we're told & know that we probably will never know this side of heaven the "why" of it.