Servant Leader

​Hey everyone.  Sorry again for the late post. It’s been a bit busy and the night I finally sat down to do it, I broke my ipad (which was how we posted blogs).
Anyway, I have been struggling to come up with what to write. I often am struck by something and think “I should blog about that” and promptly proceed to forget what it was. Well today, I was struck and I remembered. 
I’ve been hitting that “two month slump” everyone here warned me about. I love Uganda and I love being here; but for about 3 days I really hated doing dishes by hand, and being covered in bug bites and how muddy the dog can make the floors in a matter of seconds. Now because I have been warned about said slump I shared with Jon some of the pity parties I was having. I then proceeded to drop and break my aforementioned iPad. The pity parties increased for a moment, until the Lord chastised my heart pretty good. Anyway, all of that is to tell you about what happened today.
I was getting ready and cleaned up for the day, and when I came out of the room Jon had put dishes away, swept the whole house and was vaccuming the rug with a shop vac. I didn’t ask him to do any of that, but he did it anyway. He did it willingly and with a smile. AND THEN he asked what else he could do to help make my day easier. And the Lord just showed me that those are the things that make Jesus different from other “gods”. Jesus was the epitome of servant leadership. He came and served His own creation, and died for our redemption. He continues to serve now through the Holy Spirit leading, guiding, equipping and empowering. But even more than that, He shares that servant leadership with His followers. 
Jon would be the first to tell you, and I can vouch, that his natural man doesn’t want to do all those things. None of our natures do. But Jesus comes in and enables us to not only die to ourselves, but to love doing it. That is what a servant leader is. Servant leaders don’t ask to be followed; they do what no one else wants to and people take note. Jon could stomp around the house demanding I do what he says, wants and demands. And I would probably do none of those things (except by God’s grace). But when Jon becomes a servant to me, I desire to become a servant to him. Same with Jesus. He deserves all praise and worship because He is God. But rather than demanding it, He came and washed feet, healed the sick, touched the unloved and spoke truth. 
Today, I was struck by the compassion and love of Jesus. The fact that as filthy as I was in my sin, He came down and served so that I might be drawn into relationship with Him. He could have been done with my nonsense and made a creature that would worship Him better. But He loved me and wooed my heart. That is the difference between man-made gods and the true God. Man’s gods will use power and force to demand what they want. The true God gave all He ever had to redeem rebellious sinners. I need to spend more time meditating on that fact. I don’t have to earn God’s love, because I can’t. He didn’t have to earn mine, but He chose to anyway. A servant leader is the Leader I follow, and He produces servant leaders. So rather than get mad that I can’t get that last bit of old food off of a plate, I’m going to be grateful that Jesus washed my stinky feet.