Treated Like a Servant. What Now?
I’m questioning if I have a servant’s heart. What now?
My very first day as a full-time youth pastor was taking students to youth camp. I was excited to spend the week building relationships with them. However, on the first official day of camp, one of our young ladies began experiencing intense pain in her abdomen. She was rushed to the hospital an hour away because her kidneys were failing. Instead of being fully engaged at camp, I found myself splitting time between my students and traveling back and forth to the hospital doing my best to minister to a young lady in crisis, twelve hours away from her family.
I can’t count the times following a youth event (especially those that were stressful or challenging) when I’ve been asked, “How was your vacation? It must’ve been nice to take a week off.” Those statements cut deep every time and sometimes caused callousness in serving. It can be easy not to want to serve when no one notices or cares about, the hard work and sacrifices made.
You can know whether you have a servant’s heart by how you respond when you are treated like one.
I’ve had to check myself with this phrase more than once. In fact, it’s something my wife and I have taught our own kids. Having a servant’s heart like Jesus can mean not being treated well. Your service might go unnoticed, unappreciated, or taken for granted.
Our response matters! How we respond when treated like a servant will expose if we truly have a servant’s heart like Jesus.
He came as a servant and gave up His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:26-28).
He embodied servanthood by emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being humble (Philippians 2:5-11).
The Apostle Paul instructs us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit…” (Philippians 2:3), this includes our serving. If our approach to serving is more from selfish ambition or conceit, it may reveal our true reasoning in serving, and our response may be anger or frustration when we are treated like a servant.
ONE FINAL THOUGHT
So if others make you feel “less than” when serving, let me encourage you to respond by asking, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). This, and some of the thoughts above, might help you respond in the best way possible.
What are your thoughts?