Many of us recognize greatness as status or achievement. Our money and coinage have the faces of former presidents or founders. When asked about vocation, we speak of job first, especially if that job contains a certain status. And I'm not certain that there isn't a man alive who wouldn't like you to believe that he has access to some degree, to the keys of the kingdom. "I'm personal friends with so-and-so, who grew up with thus-and-such, who is married to the woman who is the sister of his personal aide, and she said...." (fill in the blank with some inside information that hasn't been disclosed yet...and may never be disclosed because it is half-baked).
Power and influence is a double-edged sword because you can warm next to its fire or you can get burned, sometimes fatally. Former appointees who lost favor or office-holders who left office in a major defeat enter a room and are greeted politely, but somewhere on their person is a sign, maybe only visible to some, that reads, "Plague" so they are relegated to a corner of the room with a look of loss and resign. Once they had the door opened for them, meals paid for, and were courted like a girl voted "Most Beautiful of the High School Class," and now they are just like everyone else walking the street, just a regular Joe. And it isn't just politics. Politics just makes a great example, but it happens in industry and in the public sector. Once riding high and now just another guy.
What of the Christ? Power? Absolutely, He is God. He can call down the wrath of God, create, heal, perform miracles, breathe life into nothingness, yet as Paul writes, "Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human, and it was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that - a crucifixion." (The Message, Philippians 2:5 - 8)
What example does that leave for us? As I read it, no matter how puffed up I become of myself, I am nothing. In that nothingness, I am a servant for Christ, here to fulfill his mission one opportunity at a time as they come to me. Pray we see ourselves as servants of Christ with all within our circle of friends, acquaintances, and those we don't know in our local or global community.
Hope Men's Ministy
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