Have you ever gone to the beach, waded in the water up to your knees and then been toppled over by an unruly wave? Sometimes being confronted with a truth can feel like that. For me, that wave came in the form of Micah 6:8:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
The particular truth that I’m talking about is this: I desire to be admired. That isn’t the worst part, though. I desire to be admired so much that it was my motivator for serving others. Rooted in pride, that mind set prevented me from being a humble servant and leader. Pride always shows its ugly face eventually.
A group of lovely women from my church get together each Monday night. Myself and one of the other women have been tasked with facilitating the group. So, in preparation for our first meeting, I read and prayed over Philippians 1 (the passage we are studying), read commentary, and jotted down important points from the text to discuss. I was all set; this meeting was going to be smooth and productive.
So, when we didn’t get to most of my “important” points, I became blinded by my pride-induced discouragement and left the meeting feeling irritated, impatient and like none of the women found my insights helpful. Initially, I failed to recognize that leading the meeting was not at all about me. In fact, God used the other women to teach me about humility. Paul introduces his letter to the Philippians with this, “Paul and Timothy, SERVANTS of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:1). He calls himself a servant! The Messiah humbled Himself by becoming like one of us–lowering Himself to our level (Philippians 2:7).
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said,
Humility is the mother of all virtues: the humble in spirit progress and are blessed because they willingly submit.
That is the mark of a servant leader–a humble, submissive spirit. Jesus didn’t serve and love to be admired by other people (ironically, He was hated by other people). Rather, He humbly served other people because that is what God sent Him to do (Mark 10:35-45). His method produced results, too. We see in the Bible his followers, like Paul and Peter, become better people. Paul was transformed from a tyrannical Pharisee to a humble Apostle. Peter was transformed from a self-centered fisherman to a fruit-bearing teacher. They grew in their humility and faith … because they loved Jesus and one another (John 21:17; Ephesians 5:2). Below are seven suggestions for application. A SERVANT leader:
Sacrifices time and resources for others.
Empathetically listens with the goal of seeing an issue from the other person’s perspective.
Respects the opinions and circumstances of others.
Values doing what is right even if it means being opposed by others.
Asks for help and raises other leaders.
Navigates conflict with humility. Not afraid to admit mistakes.
Takes time to pray and mediate on Scripture.
Lord, please make me a servant who serves because You love me and I You … rather than to gain the respect of others. Teach me to be a living example of what Jesus taught. My desire is to emanate his consistent love, peacefulness, gentleness, humility and wisdom. Continue to teach me to be a servant leader to others. I pray that any believer reading this post would become a servant leader in their relationships, too. Thank you for the women you’ve placed in my life to teach me about humility, grace and friendship. Amen.
What do you think is a characteristic that marks a servant leader?
