Recent Musings:
Servant mentality.
Monday, May 8, 2006
This is one I've been pondering for a long time and although I'm closer to an understanding, I'm not yet there.
Servant mentality is the attitude Christians are to clothe themselves with in order to be more like Christ. However, I have a hard time differentiating between servant and slave. I view both as positions in which you aren't given much of a choice; in either, you're still working for someone else, putting their wants and needs above yours.
The Bible emphasizes that we are no longer slaves but servants and as servants we are friends with Christ. This explains the concept to me, but I look at my life and don't see myself serving my friends. I still lack a real-life example, something tangible that will make sense to me.
As I'm researching servanthood, I read one article which defines being a servant as a way in which you administer freedom to another person by doing something for them, thus eliminating part of their life-duties and freeing up their time.
My real-life example starts to unfold. I've been serving in a restaurant for over a year and I've come to recognize team-work in a way I never had before. While I'm busy, the bussers do things for me that I can't get to in order to help me (and earn their tips).
Therefore, I'm closest now to undersanding that servanthood and a servant mentality is a little like multi-tasking with and for other people, like in a team. Servant mentality is like being a server in a restaurant: while I'm serving my table the bussers are serving me, helping me be more autonomous by picking up my slack.
I do view the servant mentality in a different way now because I find myself wanting to help others. As I help them, or serve them, and give them the free time that every person so desparately needs in life, they are more capable of accomplishing the things they want to accomplish in their day. I understand now that when I do some thing for another person, saving them some time and effort, that gives them more time and more effort to put toward other passions in their life. I understand too that I'm not serving because I have to, because I'm lesser or because I feel it's my obligation; I understand that by serving others I am helping them, I am moving them forward in their life by doing something to lighten their load.
I don't know, yet, how to apply this to my Christian walk. Is this the servant mentality Christ meant in the Scriptures, simply lightening the load of others? Or is there a spiritual application that I haven't understood yet? I don't know; I believe answers will be revealed when I'm ready.