Issue 597
Your phone connects to them, your TV and PC do as well. Your modem and any smart device do along with some of your utilities. Today’s world would literally grind to a halt without them.
Go outside of your personal space into retailers, restaurants, hotels, any business they all rely on them. It’s not too dramatic to state that nothing much can get done OR everything can get done with the use of them.
You, your phone, your car, your modem and your PC are called clients of them and I am referring to that combination of software and hardware which goes under the name of ‘server’.
Servers do not exist for themselves; they literally serve the purposes of their clients. That is their nature.
In the second look at the Christmas Mindset of the Son of Man may I invite you to reflect on Paul’s inspired description of Jesus as “the servant”?. We have seen something of his emptying, please focus now on his actions and attitude, labeled servant. It’s an astonishing characteristic.
Think of the truly wealthy people you know. They tend to expect a high standard of service. Some even employ “servants” in the form of butlers, cooks, chauffeurs or yacht captains.
What you are looking at this Christmas is the Son of Man who gave up his wealth, status and riches and took the role of a servant, offering his services to you and all, so we can become “clients” drawing on his power. So we can live.
His mindset is to serve you even though he does not have to, Christmas is a voluntary service story where the central character shapes himself to the needs of a powerless world.
One of the things I love about American culture is the number of times you hear the question “how may I serve you?” Of course it’s good business sense but it also reflects a mindset containing a desire that the customer is satisfied.
Has it occurred to you that God’s desire for you is your well-being? He wants you to work well, fueled not by bandwidth or megabytes per second, but by the Spirit of God Himself brought to you by the servant Son of Man who said that he came not to be served but to serve.
It cannot stop with you. Paul’s point is that you and I should adopt the same mindset. So here’s your question for the week. What would my week look like if I became a servant to all? It might make you think about what it means to be human. We will, next week.
BIBLE SECTIONS
Philippians 2:5-8
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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