Week of February 23, 2004:

Servant

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him, "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do us a favor.  "What is it?" he asked.  In your glorious Kingdom, we want to sit in places of honor next to you" . . . Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking!  . . . You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the
people beneath them.  But among you it should be quite different.  Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all." (John 10: 35-38, 42-44).
 
2000 years have passed since the writing of this passage and yet today we still strive for a position of authority where we can, not lead people, but rule over them.  It seems that the old saying, "look out for number one" has in fact become a way of life. 
 
The concept of being a servant is very misunderstood.  Society equates servant hood with slavery a position to be avoided at all cost.  It is very difficult for parents to teach their children that there is great honor in serving someone.  If we look around our business world, seldom do we find a vendor whose mission is to be a servant to his client.  Often times we are left feeling as if they are doing us a great favor by taking our money.  Most often we strive to get the better hand of the deal, and our satisfaction lies not in that we give our customers 110% value for their money, but that we took them for all we could-and got away with giving as little as we could get away with.  After all is this not in fact a way to control cost in a competitive economy? 
 
The same principle dominates our workplace.  For many titles are more important than economic remuneration.  I knew many who were happier with a business card with a big title than a paycheck.  Among different levels of management the mission is not what is best for our company and thus for our customers, but in what is in it for me?  We seem to focus on the now instead of the tomorrow, on us, instead of them.
 
When often asked how my wife and I began a small company with a $500.00 investment in the basement of our home and grew it to a million dollar thriving company in less than four years, we do not have to hesitate?  We simply decided that we were going to do what others had a problem doing:  We would honor God in all we did by serving our customers; we would give our customers more than what they paid for.  Simple, yet so difficult to implement in today's cut throat business world.
 
The concept of being a servant was extremely difficult for Jesus' followers to grasp.  After all, how could He, whom they believed to be God, wash their feet?  Was this act not restricted to the lowest of slaves?  Yet, it would be the foundation of the Christian faith.  Their Messiah did not come like King David on a warrior's horse to win some type of political war and liberate them from the Romans.  He came sitting on a donkey to die for them-and expect them to die for others.  So revolutionary was the thought that many who followed him left him.  Yet, this revolutionary act would change the course of humanity. 
 
It is only in the act of serving others that true freedom lies.  It is in the act of giving of our selves to others that true victories are won.  It changed the Roman-Greco world and it can change our business world today.  I suggest that if we teach our children as well as our fellow employees to "ask not what others can do for them, but what they can do for others", as we place the welfare of others above ours, we can in fact change our business world, and our families.

Lord, allow me today to place the interest of others above mine.  Allow me to serve others.

Meditation: 

How important are others above you?  How important is the welfare of your children and spouse above yours?


Jorge L. Valdes, Ph.D.

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