Take Two

And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:35 (KJV)

Do you ever wonder why you are, where you are at this moment? Whether you are happy or fulfilled (or not), do you ever question what reason or purpose God has for you where you are at right now? I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend regarding this very thought. Allow me to share-

As most of you know, I am an ordained minister, a member of a General Board of the UPCI, now a member of an Executive Board of the UPCI and in my local assembly…

… I am the drummer.

This had bothered me at length until about two weeks ago when I found myself in a pattern whenever I was speaking with my pastor. Every time he asked me to do something, my answer was the same; “whatever you need”. I wasn’t being sarcastic or smarmy (those of you who know me know I have great capacity for both) but I genuinely wanted to serve my pastor in whatever capacity I could. I was learning to become a servant (novel idea, I know).

We are starting a Sunday School extension at a housing project in Mount Vernon in December. Yesterday, my pastor asked if I would help lead this effort. Again, I said “whatever you need” (FYI-I’m still the drummer on Sunday nights). Harold Hoffman once said that if you wanted to know if you had a servant’s heart, judge how you feel when someone treats you like one. That’s been a very profound lesson for me over the last several months.

Here’s my point- I am grateful for the leadership positions that I’m in. I get to meet a lot of great people and serve in an area that I am passionate about. But if they all went away tomorrow, I feel certain that I could be just as happy serving my local church in whatever capacity was necessary. I have prayed that I want to be more like Jesus. Maybe Jesus is seeing if I’m serious.