It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant.
(Matthew 20.26
NRSV)
But wait. Horville heard footsteps on the ceiling of floor number two. A higher level meant higher wages. The next day, Horville rose to the third floor job of sales coordinator. But that didn't end his ambition. He wished for still more promotions. He went to the tenth floor, then to the twentieth--the fiftieth--the seventieth. Still he was not satisfied. Horville was sitting by the indoor pool on floor ninety-six, when he discovered a stairway leading up...to another floor? He scrambled up the stairs, and found himself on the roof. At last, he was the highest, the greatest.
Finally content, he headed for the down stairway, when he came across a boy on the edge of the building with his eyes closed. "What are you doing?" "Praying." "To whom?" The boy pointed a finger skyward, and replied, "To God." Panic gripped Horville. Was there a floor above him? He couldn't see it, and he couldn't hear any footsteps shuffling around up there. Just clouds. "Do you mean that there's somebody above me? Someone greater than I?" "Yes." The bug was summoned. "Make me God. Make me the greatest. Put me in the type of position that only God would hold if he were on earth." The very day, Horville began work in the mail room.
Much is made over the sins of the Pharisees--their lack of humility, their hypocrisy, their hardness of heart. But how do we rate compared not with them but with Jesus? Do we have the heart of a servant?
Dear God, guide me in growing a servant’s heart. Amen.