Acts of Service
A wise man once said: “If anyone wants to be First, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
“My husband (she says) is a typical pilot. He’s an overgrown kid. His planes are the toys he plays with. When you live with a pilot, that’s something you get used to. It’s the curse of these guys – but it’s what keeps up their energy levels.
“Life with a pilot is one of feast versus famine. They’re either off somewhere flying, or else around causing trouble for you. It’s like living with a retiree. You think, Why doesn’t he get out of here? Then suddenly, he’s gone, and you say, “When is he coming home again?
“Unlike those women who depend on their husbands (‘Could you talk to our lawyer’ ‘Could you spank our son this evening?’), the wife of a pilot has to learn self-sufficiency. When a problem comes up, she has to handle it like a single woman. The joke in our family is that my husband is, ‘The Phantom.’ Some of our friends think that our children are fatherless. Even my mother says she suspects I just rented him. She says I paid him five dollars to say ‘I do’ at the wedding ceremony.
During the American Revolution, a noncommissioned officer was directing the repairs of a military building. He was barking orders to the soldiers under his direction, trying to get them to raise a heavy wooden beam.
As the men struggled in vain to lift the beam into place, a man who was passing by stopped to ask the one in charge why he wasn’t helping the men. With all the pomp of an emperor, the soldier replied, “Sir, I am a corporal!”
“You are, are you?” replied the passerby, “I was not aware of that.” Then, taking off his hat and bowing, he said, “I beg your pardon, Corporal.” Then the stranger walked over and strained with the soldiers to lift the heavy beam. After the job was finished, he turned and said, “Mr. Corporal, when you have another such job, and have not enough men, send for your Commander-in-Chief, and I will come and help you a second time.”
The corporal was thunderstruck. The man’s name was General George Washington.
We all want to be honored, respected and appreciated. So badly, sometimes, that we try to demand it; from our wife, our husband, our kids or our co-workers. The fact is that these things cannot be demanded or even requested. True honor, respect and appreciation only come one way. When we become servants. A wise man once said, “If anyone wants to be First, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)