The MET Church Houston, Texas

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. (Mark 10:43 – 44)

A restaurant recently opened a new location in Houston. One evening it was extremely busy; so it was not surprising to see an elderly man fill multiple roles. He carried his dustpan and broom to clean up where needed, bused tables and even greeted people at the door. It seemed evident the restaurant manager needed to hire additional employees. Another aspect that stood out was each employee wore a white shirt, tie and a nametag that displayed the employee’s name and number of years he/she had worked for the parent company. The employee who seemed willing to do what was needed, no matter how menial or insignificant the task, was wearing a gold nametag with 55 years under his name. A customer noticed it and supposed, “This must be a good company to work for if the clean-up guy has been here for 55 years!” Any observer watching this man work would begin to notice that in addition to sweeping the floor and seating guests, he was also serving drinks, giving directions to the management team and generally confirming the employees in the dining room. What guests did not know was that this supposed bus-boy had held a high level executive position at the corporate offices for many years, but had recently retired to be the Regional Training Manager.

Undoubtedly, if anyone in the building had earned the right to sit in the dining room and be served or hand out instructions to management, it was this bus boy. Instead, it was apparent NO job was too small for him. In Mark 10:43 – 44 the Bible tells us to put others ahead of ourselves. No matter what we have attained in life or how strong or smart we are, God tells us to serve others.

Look for opportunities this week at work, at school, on the road, at church or even in the grocery store where you can put other people first and unselfishly serve as you become second.