Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Philippians 2: 1-8 (NIV) emphasis, mine
I really wannabe a servant and have a servant’s heart. I do. It is just that soooooo very often my flesh goes into overdrive and the servant’s heart is left behind in the dust of my pride.
Yesterday the Holy Spirit slayed me with conviction as I found myself in a situation where I had to choose to have a servant’s heart. A woman, who is a semi-regular customer, came into the pharmacy where I work as a pharmacist. She is not a particularly nice person and has the attitude that others owe her something. She doesn’t pay for her medications and doesn’t hold down a job. Oh, she is able to work, she simply chooses not to—allowing the taxpayers to keep her up. ‘Nuf said or I’ll really get cranked up on that topic.
She walked up to the counter where I stood and began giving me orders. It went something like this. “You need to fax up to the doctor’s office and get them to refill my medicine.” “You get to work on that and I’ll be back after I see the doctor.” No ‘please’ or ‘would you?’ or ‘thank you’. Just commands.
Immediately I bristled and thought, “Don’t you go ordering me around. I’m the pharmacist, not your slave.” Thankfully I kept my mouth shut, which is a huge step forward for me in comparison with a few years ago!!
Ka-bam!! The Holy Spirit hit me with such a wave of conviction that I nearly fell backward. He brought to mind the verses quoted above from Philippians chapter 2. I have highlighted some phrases that remind me (also can read that as ‘convict me’) of how to have a servant’s heart. ‘Do nothing out of vain conceit’—ouch that one bites! ‘In humility consider others better than yourself’—Jesus, that one is just too hard sometimes, especially when ‘others’ don’t deserve it!!
Then I was reminded that I most assuredly did NOT deserve what Jesus did for me when He humbled Himself and came to earth to die for me. Yes, I wannabe a woman with a servant’s heart like Jesus. Thankfully, He stands ready to forgive me when I fail.
I want to leave you with my rendition of a quote that I heard about this topic of servant hood. For the life of me, I cannot remember where the quote came from but it went something like this: The true measure of servant hood and humility is evidenced by how you react when someone treats you like a servant.
Lord, help me have a servant’s heart—a heart like Jesus!
