“Grandpa, dance with me.”
Never heard my wife say that
before. She was mimicking one of your daughters,
who had said it more like this – “Grandpa!
Dance with me!” To which I
replied “After I do some more of this work.” You can imagine that your mom followed up her
comment with “You won’t hear that for much longer”. So I danced.
“Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise
authority over them. 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
your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and
to give his life as a ransom for many.’" (Matthew 20:25-28 ESV)
“To serve”.
Talk about counterintuitive. But God Himself is a serving God – the Father
serves the Son and the Spirit just as the Son and the Spirit serve the other
two Persons of the Trinity. Always have,
always will. For us to be great we must
serve. It is who God is, and all things
that will be successful must orient to their Creator. Never, ever, under any circumstances, put
yourself first. You do claim you want to
be like Christ, yes?
“To give his life”.
Yes, of course, he died for us. But he also lived for us. You have not missed that at least thirty
years of normal life passed before he began his ministry. Probably started work at age 12. The Creator of the universe worked for 18 years
in a tiny little shop doing manual labor.
Give your life to your wife – “Husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”, (Ephesians
5:25 ESV). Then we can think about our
work, our kids, the other ministries God puts in our lives.
Serve with your life – which may
include a little impromptu dancing.
