The Upside-Down Kingdom, PART I. (Servanthood)

I have a confession to make. I'm kind of ashamed to say this but for the first eighteen years of my life I lived for myself. If I have a description of my childhood, I remember being bored with life and terribly self-absorbed . . . and I was really unhappy too. The Lord Jesus came into my life second semester freshman year at the University of Kansas and for the last almost twenty years, I've been learning to live within the framework of His life-giving ways. What that means is that my life has been one of putting off the "old man" and putting on Christ. What THAT means is that I've been learning how to find true joy and meaning in life by dying to my selfishness and learning how to find my greatest joy in the service of others.

The problem with me is that serving others has never come that naturally for me. I'm a high introvert, and I can also be terribly self-absorbed too. I am protective of MY time and when I am unable to have MY time and serve MY agenda, I can become terribly frustrated. You know the passage in Philippians 2 that talks about taking on the attitude of Jesus by considering others' interests as more important than your own? This has been the story of my (regenerate) life, trying to do the Philippians 2 thing. In my natural state, I would rather take up my own life than empty it. I would rather reach for power and control rather than give it up. I'd rather become great first rather than take the form of a servant first.

And I think this is the amazing thing about the Gospel that God Himself took the form of a servant. Can you wrap your head around that amazing truth? I can't. Colossians 1:15,16 talks about how Jesus is the image of the Invisible God, how in Him all things hold together and that all things were created by Him. So Jesus is the Creator God of the Universe. In our frenetically-paced lives, stop and think about that for just fifteen minutes, maybe let it soak in for thirty. Now hear the Philippians 2:6,7 part about how though being God, Jesus did not take hold of that equality, instead made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, . . .