Good Service

Good Saturday morning! The week has been a pleasant one, but after thanking God we might want to start praying for some moisture out in these parts. Praise God for the new day and Brother Sun who lights it up with his light. As the fun of the NCAA basketball tournaments continue toward the final brackets, what are we watching? Do we look at the team manager with the water bottles to see how he or she is doing this game? Do we watch the famous golfer on the TV or his caddie? How many of us watched the support staff during the Super Bowl to see how well they performed? In our culture, we laud the winner and forget entirely about the people who helped the winner arrive on the podium. Yes, the players, golfers, or drivers do have to perform out there in front of everyone, but they remind me of the pray-er on the corner of whom Jesus said, "They have their reward." We tend to overlook those serving the 'great one' even though our Lord gave us His own example of what is important in the kingdom. Serving well does not get the credit it deserves in this world.

The world may never laud and honor the servant. In fact, we tend to hate the term now or even view it with skepticism when we hear it. How many of us really believe the senator or presidential candidates this year intend to be public servants? Most of us would agree that all of them are in it to serve themselves first and the country second. How else do we explain why they all seem to come out of an office with a modest salary wealthier than when they began to 'serve'? That example too tame? How many of us believe the multimillion dollar CEO who says he came to serve the employees of the company to the best of his ability? We do have some problems with the highly compensated 'servants' of our times. Yet, how many of us go to work with the goal of serving well for our paycheck? Jesus reminded us that if we are faithful with little, then we will be entrusted with more. Yes, your workplace may bring to mind that other promise of Jesus: "He who endures to the end will be saved."

Take heart, not all workplaces are like that. The tide of the Great Recession seems to have turned. We may yet have many good opportunities to serve well once more as companies relax from the panic mode of the past couple of years. Other than our jobs though, we do have opportunities all around us to serve well. Churches always need volunteers, especially now that record numbers of them are going bankrupt or having their properties foreclosed. I would submit to you that serving well (that means no grumbling) is a more rewarding feeling than any paycheck or bonus. A few years ago, I will admit that seemed hard to believe. I tended toward the workman deserves his wages and the more the merrier. If you don't remember Jesus adding that last bit, you are absolutely correct; he didn't. Serving well means we do it in faith that God will provide, and not with our hands out for more cash. The good servant is content with his wages, whether the wage is paid in cash or in heavenly rewards. The good servant is content with what God provides, even if the provision is not all that our worldly minds want. Lord, teach me to be a good servant, amen.

Bucky