The "S" Word

There's a word that is dirty and perhaps even despised in this world. It is looked down upon in a world of education and modernity. It is disgusting to cultured and civilized individuals.

That word is "servant". There I said it! Or here's an even more repugnant word, "slave".

The Bible records that a dispute arose among the disciples as to whom was the greatest. Then, "Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.
"But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

The Holy Spirit reminded me of the above passage this week as I was implicitly challenged to live like a servant because of certain circumstances. However, I usually want to be recognized as the greatest in some realm of life. I sometimes struggle to want to be the most knowledgeable, the best dressed, the most popular, or the best cook. I want to be the one to share the best piece of wisdom in Bible Study. I want to be the one to hog all the time of the new believer so I can get the credit for her growth in Christ. I want to be the one praised as having the best servant's heart, while not taking any of the real servant hardships upon my shoulders. Perhaps we are not as obvious as the disciples in our desires to be great. Unlike the disciples, we might not openly argue about who is the greatest, but we still dream and scheme in our heads to plan crafty ways of becoming great while still appearing to be humble on the outside. But instead to be really "great" I am to be a servant and even a slave to all (not just to the handful of people I call my good friends). Jesus himself was our example. He didn't tell us to be servants and then lord it over us. Instead he first was a servant and then told us to follow after him.

So what does being a servant or slave look like? Honestly, I'm still working it out in my life. I think it could possibly include being a person of no reputation: to do the things that are consider too low by others. Being a servant is to do the things that no one else wants to because those duties will always go unnoticed and unappreciated by people. Maybe this includes picking up after messy people, cleaning toilets, or ministering to the elderly. This would mean giving of yourself to get nothing in return. It also means to befriend those whom no one else will befriend; the socially awkward person, the smelly person, or the overly obnoxious person. A servant might gladly listen to these people for hours and never expect the favor to be returned. In addition, a servant might engage in spiritual activities, such as leading a Bible study, praying for others, or disciplining someone, simply because they love God and not because they want man's praise on Sunday. Most days I stink at being a servant, but I'm still learning.

Most importantly though, at the end of the day when the servant has continually submitted and sacrificed himself for the good of the body and worship of the Lord, one thing is true- they have only done their duty.



"So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty." -Luke 17:10

To Grandmother's House We Go

So my grandma is seriously a hoot! I have way too many funny stories about her. She is definitely one of a kind! This weekend Tommy and I are planning on visiting her for some good old grandma time! She's 85 and still living on her own! Since we are visiting my grandmother this weekend, I thought it would only be appropriate to share a good grandma story. Enjoy!

While in college I received a game called Wise and Otherwise. This game consists of ancient sayings from all over the world. Each round a different player designated as the "reader" reads the first half of a saying. Then everyone else makes up the second half of the saying and as you might have guessed hilariousness ensues! The reader of the saying reads all the made up endings and the actual ending of the saying. Then all the other participants have to guess, which one is the real ending. Well, one summer evening I was playing with my family, grandma, and my good friend Valerie. The saying started, "He who is held by the throat..." Everyone jotted down their made up endings and turned them in to the reader. However, we didn't' get very far in that round because one the first sayings to be read went like this, "He who is held by the throat...the sucka' will die." No one could control their laughter. Instantly we all knew who had been the author of that far fetched statement. Ancient sayings aren't really compatible with the word "sucka". And to top it off, it was grandmother that used the word "sucka." To make matters worse, my grandmother couldn't understand why it was so funny. She kept repeating, "But the sucker really would die!" Now this has become a famous quote in our family..."The Sucka' Will Die!"

Elevator Etiquette

Everyday, unless I am ambitious and decide to hike up the stairs, I take an elevator up to the floor where I work. And everyday pretty much the same scenario plays out. The elevator is packed when everybody files in on the first floor. The crowd in the elevator slowly dwindles as the people get off on the ascending floors. Then begins the elevator shuffle. As people leave the elevator, the passengers remaining work to rearrange themselves as to be at the farthest equidistant position from all other people in the elevator. For example, if there were four people left they would probably all be standing in one of the four corners. I like to quietly observe how often this shuffle happens and it is almost constant. This morning all the other passengers had emptied except myself and a gentleman. This gentleman had been behind me for the whole elevator ride up to this point, but as everyone else left he moved to the opposite wall. But the kicker is that he got off at the next floor. So I guess it was just too unbearable for him to ride that close to me for one more second. Boy that would have been really awkward! So my question is, "Why do we as Americans feel the need to always have space?" I mean really, would it be all that awkward to ride a foot or two away from another human being for one elevator floor or do we just make it more awkward than it actually is? Maybe its just that living overseas for a while has given me a different perspective. I've rode buses overseas where it was so crowded that I wasn't sure if the leg I scratched was really mine! You really don't have personal space, the buses were so crowded at times that the doors would barely shut. Seriously! And even when the buses emptied out, there was no silly dancing around to find a spot farther away from everyone else. I'm certainly not saying that personal space is a bad thing, but sometimes I think we can be a little extreme about it. I think when I get on the elevator next time and there is only a person or two, I will stand as close to them as possible. (Well, maybe not. I'd probably be sued for harassment or something, but it would be pretty funny! )

I warned him...

Before we were married I warned my husband that sometimes when I am woken from my sleep...I'm not a very friendly person. If I am tired before actually being asleep I'm just really goofy, but if I've actually been asleep...watch out! Overall, through our first year we've rarely confronted many of these instances. However, Wednesday morning at breakfast Tommy informed me that I was quite crabby the night before. Initially I did not remember anything from the night before, but once Tommy started to recap it came back to me. Sometime during the night Tommy's toe touched the bottom of my foot. This caused me to wake up and strongly reprimand him for scratching me when I was trying to sleep. Later that night I apparently screamed in my sleep waking Tommy again. Being a concerned and startled husband, Tommy asked if I was okay. Wanting to go back to sleep, I just told him to leave me alone. But Tommy persisted to make sure I was okay. I angrily replied, "never mind." However this did not suffice him. Seeing that I wasn't easily going to get rid of him I mumbled something about him not catching the frogy worm thing for me in my dream. Although technically I had been the one to wake him up twice , I finished by informing him to stop being so rude and waking me up.

We both laughed at my crankiness the next morning. Fortunate for me, I have a very understanding husband. But in my defense I told Tommy, "You know, I did warn you!"

Four Things

I was tagged by Angela-

Four Things...

Four jobs I've had:
1. Currently a Client Service Assistant in Retirement Services- Don't ask, its not that interesting
2. Substitute teacher (definitely the most stressful)
3. An Elementary and History Tutor (definitely the most fun!)
4. A Janitor, believe it or not!?

Four movies I've seen more than once:
*I really have to like a movie to watch it more than once*
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. It's a Wonderful Life
3. What about Bob?
4. Pride and Prejudice (the new version)

Four TV shows I watch:
* I don't currently watch four TV shows, but these are some that I really enjoyed watching at various times in the past and present*
1. The Amazing Race
2. Gilmore Girls
3. The Cosby Show
4. And I have to agree with Angela- I love HGTV, but we don't have it either

Four places I've been:
1. Turkey (Including Ephesus)
2. Jamaica
3. Mexico
4. New York City

Four people who email me regularly:
1. Patti
2. People at work- how lame is that (but in my defense not all of it is business)!
3. Kim
4. Family

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Cheeze-its (definitely love these- I can eat a whole box by myself in a day!)
2. Feta Cheese on almost anything
3. Guacamole
4. Dark Chocolate

Four things I'm looking forward to in the next year:
1. Next summer (I really dislike winter and its already getting a little chilly for me)
2. Getting back into serving at my church
3. Getting into road biking more and hopefully even entering a race
4. Cooking, I've found I really enjoy it! I love to try new things! I don't really repeat recipes. And I would love to take a cooking class just for fun!

Now I'm tagging Emily!

I have to admit...sometimes I'm a Pharisees

A. W. Tozer writes in his book The Root of Righteousness-

"The test by which all conduct must finally be judged is motive.

As water cannot rise higher than its source, so the moral quality in an act can never be higher than the motive that inspires it. For this reason, no act that arises from an evil motive can be good, even though some good may appear to come out of it. For this reason no act that arises from an evil motive can be good, even though some good may appear to come out of it. Every deed done out of anger or spite, for instance, will be found at last to have been done for the enemy and against the Kingdom of God!

Unfortunately, the nature of religious activity is such that much of it can be carried on for reasons that are not goo, such as anger, jealousy, ambition, vanity and avarice. All such activity is essentially evil, and will be counted as such at the judgement.

In this matter of motive, as in so many other things, the Pharisees afford us clear examples.
They remain the world's most dismal religious failures, not because of doctrinal error nor because they were careless or lukewarm, nor because they were outwardly persons of dissolute life.
Their whole trouble lay in the quality of their religious motives. They prayed, but they prayed to be heard of men, and thus their motives ruined their prayers and rendered them not only useless, but actually evil. They gave generously to the service of the temple, but they sometimes did it to escape their duty toward their parents, and this was an evil. They judged sin and stood against it when found in others, but this they did from self-righteousness and hardness of heart.

So with almost everything they did. Their activities had about them an outward appearance of holiness, and those same activities, if carried on out of pure motives, would have been good and praiseworthy. The whole weakness of the pharisees lay in the quality of their motives.

That this is not a small matter may be gathered from the fact that those orthodox and proper religionists went on in their blindness, until at last they crucified the Lord of glory, with no inkling of the gravity of their crime!"

Sometimes the blackness of my own heart propels me far from any pure motive and into only self-glorification and pride. Thus, my nature as a Pharisee comes to life again. Of course God know what we are made of and how the flesh desperately fights against the spiritual. But today if you read this post, please examine your motives. God knows your heart do you?

Is it possible??

I know this is going to sound a little ridiculous and crazy, but I think that I pulled a muscle in my big toe. I'm not sure how in the world it happened. All I know is the top of my big toe hurts every time I move my foot to walk. Weird.