“The
Servant of All” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
So, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee
from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. Begin to lament, to
mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into
dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. (James
4:7-10)
Throw your cares on the Lord,
and he will support you. (Psalm 55:23a)
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If
anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
Piety
Father help me to slow down and love.
Study
Do you want to be first?
Okay, so maybe not first. But
probably not last. Last can leave us with the piece of cake with the least
frosting on it, the book with a flaw on the cover, the prayer card for a saint
we don’t know anything about… you know, the leftovers physically or
spiritually.
And yet, last is exactly where God
wants us.
I have this sign on the wall at
work. The source is anonymous, but it’s clearly Spirit-inspired:
If you want to go fast,
go alone.
If you want to go far,
go together.
Speed, you see, kills the soul. When
we go fast, our eyes are on the finish line, not those who are struggling
behind us. We don’t see their hands go up, asking for help or expressing
despair. We don’t hear their ragged breath or see the sorrow in their eyes.
When we cease to be concerned about
helping everyone—our family, our friends, our neighbors, the people we pass on
the street every day or hear about on the news—in the way in which God desires,
we take ourselves off the track to eternal salvation. Lent starts tomorrow.
It’s a great time to get back on track.
Action
Slow down, you move too fast, as
Paul Simon wrote.
(Image:
https://pixabay.com/photos/
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