I've been drawn to the story in the paper the last few days about a nurse's aid from Pennsylvania recently crowned king of a small country in Africa. Can you believe it?! One day you're taking orders from a boss, punching a time clock and the next day you're a king! You can read the full story here, but the parallel to the Christian story is remarkable.Philippians 2 talks about Jesus "being in very nature God" but gave that all up to become a human servant. In other words, Jesus relinquished his rights to the Throne of the Universe to become a human servant of others. The Jesus story of Philippians 2 ends with Jesus re-assuming his rightful royal position but having left an example for us to follow. Paul put it this way, "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves... your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:3-5)
The Jesus Way is full of upside down logic like this. Jesus says if you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself. He says the last shall be first. In the Jesus Way the servant way is the kingly way.
Perhaps if I lived with a clearer inner assurance of my true identity as a royal heir of Jesus' kingdom I wouldn't feel so compelled to pound the table and demand my rights. Perhaps if I lived in the daily reality that I am a child of the King, I wouldn't complain so much when I don't get my way.
I suppose it won't be long until Charles Wesley Mumbere's story becomes a Disney movie. And when it does, I'll probably be one of the first in line. In the meantime, I resolve to live more kingly myself - right here in my real life now.
1 comment:
Steve,
Sometimes you don't have a choice. You have to lose yourself first, then find yourself. I learned that it's very hard to walk the way of Jesus. But when I do the homeless ministry, it teaches me to be kind to people no matter what their status in life is. Also, people will hurt you along the way that you thought that you could trust. Instead, they hurt you for no reason. But all you can do is treat them with kindness and hope one day they would see how much they hurt that person because they listen to the world around them.
Just remember people come and go in people's life to show how Jesus lives and practices in his way for a reason.
Tricia
Post a Comment