The Servant of All

THURSDAY 3.6.08 - JOHN 13:12-16
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

After really having a great week and a half Lord, I really come to this time today lacking motivation to study or to learn. I wish in this time that we spend together I had more opportunity to do. I feel like I'm starting to feel fed up with learning about action and servanthood and I want a place to be active and show servanthood. Show me today even how I can truly be a servant to my students, my wife, my son, my friends...those who continually surround my life. I suppose that is where I should start.

READ. And why not. Even as I go back to the Scriptures it suddenly jumps out to me that in this display of utmost servanthood, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples first of all. Sure, this was to be a teaching exercise. But Jesus seems to often act as one thing throughout all the circumstances of his life. So many times when I think of broken and poured out for others, I think of the extreme examples in my life. The Aisha's, the Kelly's, the ones I have yet to meet. I don't think about my students, my wife, my co-workers, etc. Am I broken in service to them, bowing at their feet to wash?

THINK. It leads me to thoughts of division. My life is so divided. My spiritual life has been so trained to be about private time with God, devotions or whatever you call it, when You and I are removed from others and I can think and pray alone. The other part of my spiritual life is the time I am trying to be spiritual; going over to Kelly's to pray for her, taking food and money to the Window, heading to church to preach a sermon. Yada, yada, yada.

But where are these things coming to play in the place where I spend eight hours a day? When I have things to focus on besides You, like teaching students how to solve a multi-step inequality, where do You go? Where do these traits that I'm trying to develop and enhance go?

Yesterday I made a list of the teachings that we have done at Exodus, to help me start to think about where I am living them out. All of my thoughts about living them out were somewhere beyond my workplace.

I know I need Your presence deeply in helping to lead and shape the Exodus Community, but if I am going to lead and shape lives at school, You must be in that as well. That's something that is just jumping to my mind now. Please, continue to make my life less divided. Let me carry this theme of servanthood into the lives of my church, but also to my students and to my family. Let servanthood define who I am.

PRAY. Dear God, I pray to You about the example You set in the flesh. Jesus, You came and You walked with all sorts of people. Your closest disciples, "women of the night," the leading teachers of the day, everyday fishermen and even Roman rulers were in Your company at some point during Your life. I dare say that Your attitude toward them all was one of pity and servitude. I believe that You would serve them in any way that would reconcile them to the Father.

I certainly make separations in my relationships Lord. These must be broken down. The more I separate life the more distorted every thing gets. Lord, You have been said to be able to break down every stronghold, and one of the things holding me is this compartmentalization of life. In the holy name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the blood and resurrection, crush this. Let me live today defined as a servant.

LIVE. I must be aware of my chances to serve my students and co-workers, and really anybody else who comes along today. Let me recognize these situations, fulfill them, and remember them. Today I am going to build an altar, a physical representation of the times You allow me to be a servant. It when then stand in my classroom as a reminder to be the servant of all.