A few years ago, I was watching a high school volleyball match and the starting lineup was a bit different this time as an underclassman was starting over a seasoned Senior because he missed some practices and therefore had to sit out a couple of games. The competitive young player held his own and then it came time for him to be pulled from the action. I watched his countenance and wondered what he was thinking. What was his attitude going to be after getting a taste of the high-action play and then being moved to the bench? The third game was incredibly intense. I looked over to see how the benched boy was handling it and saw him running out of the gym. Then I saw him running back with a bunch of paper towels. He went over next to the bench and began to mop the floor where another player had spilled Gatorade. So while his teammates and the entire crowd were intensely focusing on the game, this young man was focusing on preventing his teammates from slipping on the gym floor. He was still contributing to this great team win, just in a much less glamorous way.
How often does our faith ask us to do things much like this? Rather than self-promote, we are called to do things that go unnoticed and are often underappreciated. Jesus asks us to serve rather than strive for the glory moment. He asks us to follow His example on living out a great story through serving others.
There’s a beautiful passage of Scripture out of Philippians 2 that shares Jesus’ example to us of this humble service and surrendered life. Let’s take some time to reflect on it today:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Outreach Team