To Serve is to Win

While I was talking last time on this podcast about how would you get to be the greatest? And Jesus said to his followers, this handful of guys, this is both prayer phrase for starters, if you want to be first, you need to be the last of all of everyone. This is Dicphoth again with stories from the road, continuing in that little exchange that Jesus of Nazareth had with his twelve followers, who was toward the end of his earthly life, and he was on the road, heading towards Jerusalem, he's up by the Sea of Galilee, and he says this, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last or last of all and the servant of all. So he initiates the thought with, you need to be last of all, and then follows it up with sort of a one-two punch and says, and be the servant of all. And I think to myself, what's that about? Well, I think, and I'm just going to ruminate here for a few moments, I think being servant of all is the action piece of what it means to be last of all. Last of all is sort of a philosophical template, an idea, a hook on which to hang an action, and the action is to serve. Some years back when I had a friend who was leading the Navy, he had just become what they called chief of naval operations, and I was a bit in awe because I'd go to the Pentagon and he was there, his name was Vern Clark, and still is Vern Clark. And he was leading an enterprise with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian folks in his charge, and $120 billion budget a year, I mean, this huge thing. And he was a strong believer in what we call covenant leadership. The young person raises a right hand and says, I pledge, I covenant to defend an idea, it's called the Constitution, to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign domestic and to obey all those between my immediate superior and the commander in chief. So, oh my God. And his comment, his response to that is, that's what they pledge. What do we, as leaders, speaking to his admirals, what do we pledge? And when I asked him to, quote, unpack that for me and quote, he said, you know, I want our young people to know that the U.S. Navy is not just there to cut a fine silhouette on the horizon, but that if they have covenanted to do that thing, defend that idea, that we will give them the very best training, we will give them the very best equipment, and we will teach them that to serve is a noble thing, to serve is a noble thing. And I think about not just service in a broad sense, but serving has an immediate point in time action. One question always comes to mind, I have two questions that are sort of bookends, oftentimes in relationships that I have. The first one you've heard me talk about this before is, wherever you've brought up, that's an easy, non-threatening question, even if you were brought up in difficult circumstances, we understand what that is, not a trick question. But the second question along the way in any relationship I think that's going to work is anything I can do for you, anything I can do for you. Now here are Jesus' words echoing in the background here, where he's saying, if you want to be first, you must be servant of all, not just the people you like, not just the folks who can give you something back, not just the folks who can give you money or time or access or approach to power, but servant of all. I mean, this thought, anything I can do for you, really guarantees three things in my mind. There may be more, but it would guarantee you this. If you serve authentically, if you really serve, you're not just using it as a ploy, I would submit that your life will always have meaning. I also submit that you will always have friends, and finally, you'll never be out of work. You may not get money for it, but you'll never be out of work. There is something about an act of service that in a unique way puts you in the driver's seat. You say, what are you talking about? Well, it isn't something that you are forced to do, but something you do voluntarily because you know, intrinsically, in some way, deep in your heart, that if I serve you, you win and I win. Maybe that's what it means to be first of all. You win and I win too. And with that peel of thunder in the background on this late summer afternoon, I'll just let that be the exclamation point to this podcast. But think about that, if you will, and we'll be back in a bit. God bless. Thanks for listening. Take full signing off. Bye-bye.