‘The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and to share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you have brought into other people’s lives than you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them.’
–Rabbi Harold Kushner
The Nature of Jesus – Servant Leader
When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
John 13:12-17
The most effective leaders are servants who channel their time and resources to the interest of others. Jesus demonstrated this before His crucifixion. The Creator of all things did something that was considered to be the job of a slave or a servant by washing the feet of His disciples.
At that moment, in the quietness of the upper room, as His disciples watched in amazement, the highest God became the least of them all. The Master became the servant. Jesus knelt at the feet of His disciples one after the other, as He washed their dusty feet that had walked the unpaved roads of Palestine.
Jesus served His disciples because of His great love for them. Jesus also did this to give His disciples a tremendous example to follow. He showed them how to be ‘servant leaders’.
Today we all desire and long to be like Jesus and to be His disciple. This becomes possible only when we make a commitment to do as He did and give our life to serving others. As Jesus promised, ‘Now that we know these things, we will be blessed if we do them’.
Dear Lord,
I come to You in Jesus’ name. I pray that the purpose of my life will be to care, to serve and to give in obedience to Your word. Amen.
God bless you,
Theo & Manju