Holy Tuesday

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” - Matthew 22:11 (The Message)

What do you think of when you think about service? Perhaps you think about community service projects like cleaning up public spaces or painting a school. Maybe you think about your church’s charity ministries like the free store, winter outreach, food collections, or operation backpack. Maybe you think about people in helping professions like social workers, non-profit staff, medical staff, and public service personnel. Or perhaps you are thinking of the ways you are serving your neighbor in this unprecedented time.

This passage from Matthew invites us to consider that service needs to be rooted in humility. Often when defining humility, we define it as being small or feeling insignificant. But that’s a very limited definition. Humility is really about honest self-knowledge. Humility is knowing what you excel at and what you are challenged by. Humility is the space between ego and self-consciousness. Humility is seeing the big-picture and knowing that you are a part of something much greater. Humility, thankfully, is also knowing the world doesn’t rest on your shoulders.

So today, I invite you to think about the best things about yourself. Give thanks for these things and ask God to guide you in being open to ways these gifts can be used to serve others. Become aware of your growing edges and ask God to help you find balance between the best parts of you and the parts that need to be strengthened. I love how Marianne Williamson helps us to bring together the idea of service and humility saying:

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”