Slaves to what?
The great theologian, Bob Dylan, recorded the song, "Gotta Serve Somebody" in 1979 on his album, "Slow Train Coming." The lyrics of the chorus were an attempt by Dylan to inject religion into his song:
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
This concept is biblical, you will serve someone.
Paul writes in Romans 6:18 that those of us who are Christ-followers are slaves to righteousness and no longer slaves to sin.
Obviously the differences between slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness are evident by our actions. Before we carry out those actions, our heart takes a stand. Our hearts reveal whether we are slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin LONG before we carry out any action.
People who are slaves to sin usually ask the question: how far can I go before it is sinful?
People who are slaves to righteousness ask the question: how close can I get to God?
Being a slave to sin pulls you away from God just as being a slave to righteousness pulls you away from sin.
It all has to do with what your object of attention is. What we fixate on, will have the greatest influence in our life.
If a tree falls in the woods
There is an old Chinese proverb that says: “When a tree falls it makes a big noise; when a forest grows nobody hears anything.” In leadership we can be tempted to run toward the sound of “crashing trees.” After all, the excitement of sudden change can be quite alluring. We need to remember though that trees falling are not what they are intended to do!
A tree’s purpose is grow and remain standing, strong and healthy. Sometimes through outside forces or inside forces, trees fall. Usually the fall indicates something is was wrong with the tree. As leaders, we need to focus on the quiet, steady growth of those we are leading. Whether it is an organization or a group of individuals, healthy growth is the preventative measure to a premature fall.
In growing healthy followers of Christ, we must never forget the fundamentals.
- Reading the Bible (for more than information)
- Praying (for more than meals)
- Christ-centered relationships (for more than social connections)
Often times we are distracted by the excitement of rapid and sudden change, the new idea that is creating buzz, however, it is often in the quiet, consistent execution of the fundamentals that healthy growth occurs.
Declaring His Praise
When Peter wrote his first letter to the Christ-followers that had scattered throughout the region, one of his purposes was to encourage them. Another purpose was to remind them of their identity in Christ.
He writes these words: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9
One of the chief ways that we worship God is by declaring His goodness and what he has done in our lives. We can make the mistake of relegating the meaning of “worship” to a music genre. Worship isn’t the same as music, in fact, worship better equated to a lifestyle. When we come to God’s house and sing our praise and express our worship in that setting, it is a continuation of the worship of Him that we have expressed through the rest of the week.
I want to challenge you to be conscious of your worship today. Is your lifestyle consistent with your worshipful expression on a Sunday morning? Consistency in our lifestyle is critically important if we are truly people who “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness.”
Washing Toilets
One of the passages that our culture cannot fully understand is the account of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. The account is found in John 13. The disciples had arrived in a house to celebrate the Passover dinner.
The custom of the day was that a slave would wash the feet of any guests that had come to the house so that the dirt and dust from the streets wouldn’t get tracked around the house. Now, it was any slave that got this job, it was the slave lowest on the totem pole that got the foot washing duties.
The disciples had rented a room for this dinner and apparently there were no slaves to take care of the washing of feet. I’m sure Jesus watched the disciples as they came into the room. He probably saw them looking around and wondering who was going to wash everyone’s feet.
I don’t think that we can fully grasp the shock that the disciples would have experienced when Jesus picked up the towel and basin. We don’t fully appreciate what Jesus did, only because we don’t fully get how despised and demeaning a job, foot washing was.
I’ve often wondered what in our culture would compare to help us emotionally react the way the disciples would have. You see, now foot washing has become symbolic – elevated even – as the act of service. The only act that I’ve come up with: to go into someone’s house and clean their washroom – their entire washroom! Floor to ceiling!
Sweat Equity
I can still remember the day I learned to ride a bicycle. We were living in Kenya and I learned on the nice soft grass so I wouldn’t hurt myself too much when I crashed… and besides, the roads were all dirt on the mission station. It was later that I learned that falling on the road wasn’t a good idea. A friend and I crashed and I ended up with a broken collar bone.
When we moved back to Canada, my parents bought me a bike or two, but I remember when I had to buy my own bike for the first time! There was a significant change in how I treated that bike. I went from riding down the street, up the driveway and jumping off the bike to let it crash on the lawn, to using a kickstand!
I valued the bike more since I had some of my own equity in it. When my parents blessed me with a bike, I had a tendency to treat it with less respect.
When God is taking me through a hard time and I’m having to work harder than I think I should for an outcome that I know he wants in my life, I have to remember that the more sweat equity I have in the process of life-change, the more I will value it.
Thankfully, just because God can do something for us, doesn’t mean that he will do something for us!
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