OnFire Encouragement Letter

Hi Folks:

We’re back from PEI. We had a great time with my family as we celebrated my Grandmother Wallace’s 90^th birthday. About 30 of us got together for pictures and supper. We also saw my Grandmother Dennis and had supper with my father and his fiance. Weather was great for travelling, and I think I’m recovered from our little “vacation.”

Mark is over the strep throat. The boys are on March break. They’re watching movies and taking it easy.

I tapped a few maple trees, but so far not much sap. Tomorrow I get to pick out new glasses. I’ve worn the same pair, lenses and all, for about 10 years. I think its time.

Other than that, life goes on. Blessings for your week.

Troy

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When I was a lifeguard, the first pool I was in charge of was in Cavendish PEI. It sounds more glamorous than it was. Being in charge simply meant that I was the only lifeguard on duty at a busy campground pool. But the idea inflated my 17-year-old head until my hair nearly stretched. Some might say that was how I started balding!

One day a woman approached me with a question. She would be staying at the campground for a few days and wanted to get some exercise swimming, but it was impossible during the day because there were so many children around playing. Was there a time we could arrange for her to come in and swim lengths?

My mind flashed through the possibilities and problems. There were posted hours for the pool, and would we have a flood of other people wanting this? We might be able to accommodate her while we cleaned the pool, but how long it took changed from day to day. Did I want the extra hassle? I came to a decision.

I folded my arms across my chest and looked down at her. “That would not be possible,” I proclaimed. I forget the reasons I told her, but in my mind it came down to my pride of being in charge. I could make this decision, and I didn’t want to do it, so I didn’t.

I look back on that experience and think what a jerk I must have seemed, so full of myself. Even as she walked away, I knew that we could have accommodated her. Now I realize that if I had let her, she would have gone home singing the praises of the helpful campground staff. But I was in charge of the pool!

It amazes me that my attitude could have been so un-Christ-like. Rather it was more like the Jesus’ disciples. They wanted the world to know how important they were.

This week both my personal and sermon prep reading takes me to Palm Sunday and Holy week. There we see that the disciples continued to fight over who would be Jesus’ top leaders in the new Kingdom.

According to my count, they fought about this at least six times. They discussed it while they travelled. They chewed it over in their homes. James and John’s mother even lobbied for her sons. And then they rolled it around again at the Last Supper.

That’s when Jesus did something strange. First, he asked, “...who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27*)

Then Jesus got up, stripped down to his working clothes, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed the disciples’ feet. 24 stinking, dirty, dusty, cheesy-smelling feet. This task was considered so unpleasant that normally only slaves did it, and even then, not all were required because it was so menial.

The point was not that we must wash feet to be considered great, but rather it was a symbol of Jesus’ service to us. He was willing to do even the lowliest of tasks if it meant others might benefit. The ultimate symbol of his service would come the next day when he died on the cross for our sins. To die on a tree was the most humiliating form of death in that day - and Jesus did it to take our sins on himself.

Jesus turns the notion of greatness on its head. Greatness is not in the table we sit at, the responsibilities we have, our position, or the people we associate with. In the Kingdom way of life, greatness is in the service we extend to those around us. We may sit at the same tables, have the same responsibilities, associate with the same people, but the difference is in the result - we build up the people around us instead of simply building up ourselves.

And so Jesus is our example of what it means to serve. Was there anything in it for him? No, not for him. But there was for us, and that was who he was concerned about. So he washed feet and died on the cross so that we might know God. May we follow his example of service.

Hope this helps. Be OnFire.

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. To be added to or removed from the ON FIRE list contact him at onfire@eastlink.ca . Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com This letter published Mar 12, 2008. *New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978 by the International Bible Society.