Give it away, give it away, give it away now!

Matthew 20:26,27 "But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave." (NLT)

There is a great quote form the movie Braveheart as William Wallace is trying to get Robert the Bruce to step up and become the leader he was destined to be. Wallace, desperately trying to motivate the Bruce to action, says, "Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." It takes little courage to sit behind a name plate these days. Most leadership positions people assume have a perceived entitlement to leadership. "I've earned this position and now you must submit to me because of my title." This leadership philosophy is widely used throughout the corporate world, the military world, the education community and sadly also in the arena of ministry as well. People tend to demand authority because they were either elected, nominated or given a title.

Jesus fully grasped how the world worked as shone in Matthew 20:25, "So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads." (The Message) Who are our rulers today? Your boss? Your principal? Your Pastor? Your parents? We don't serve at the pleasure of kings anymore, but we do have a multitude of people we answer to. Jesus could see how in a position where a title was given there is a great chance for the abuse of power. Do the people that have "earthly" rule over you treat you well or do they "throw their weight around"? If you are in a position of authority over others, do love them or do you leverage them?

To be great leaders in the eyes of Heaven we must stop trying to use our positions of authority to leverage people or force them into doing what we want. We must become a slave to those we lead. A slave is completely subservient to their owner. Jesus wasn't talking about "prid pro quo" here. This form of leadership isn't calling us to do something for others, so that they will do something for us. Being a slave to someone else is doing what ever they need, whenever they need it. I have a tendency not to be a slave to my family like I should be. If my goal is to be the spiritual leader of my house then I should be a slave to their schedule, instead of them being slaves to mine. It really does pain me when Noah asks me to play with him, but I have something else that needs to be done at that exact moment he asks me. I tend to only read to Emily out of "The BFG" when there is nothing on TV I need to watch. Jamie still has a fish tank we bought her for Christmas, sitting in the box in her room. And my need to "decompress" from my day always supersedes Renee's need for intimacy with me.

We need to stop worrying what we "get" out of serving others and do it out of a love for a mighty God. Jesus himself said in Matthew 22:37-40, that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything you have and that a close second is to love others. My daughter Jamie says it best, "God first, others second and yourself last." She learned the phrase at camp, but I pray she sees it lived out in her home. The more we focus on God and others, the better leaders the Lord will allow us to be. Men don't follow titles, they follow courage. There is nothing more courages, in our times, then abdicating your position of power to become someone else's slave. Do we have the courage?