A close friend of mine shared with me a conversation she had with one of her work superiors. She wanted to do better. He wanted to help her do better. It wasn’t an easy conversation but it went better than expected. At one point he said, “You’ve got a servant’s heart.”
A “servant’s heart” is something usually referred to in a spiritual context. But this moment was strictly secular. In the sacred realm we “serve” by spending our time or resources to help someone. In the secular world, it’s more about caring and helping someone.
I once had someone describe me as having a “servant’s heart.” A member of the church credited me with that attribute because I was willing to move tables or clean up a mess or carry out some trash. They meant I was willing to do a menial task usually assigned to someone else, like clean a bathroom. I never thought of such tasks as heroic, but it sure sounds good to have a “servant’s heart.”
I’ve been pondering this compliment. If I were a servant, I wouldn’t have a choice. Whether my heart were in it or not, I would have to do what I was told. My tasks would not be optional, but expected. My heart or feelings or spirit would have nothing to do with it. I would have no option.
So, a “servant’s heart’ has little to do with willingness and much to do with understanding who you are. You are not the boss of your life. Someone else is. Your tasks are not negotiable. You are a servant. You aren’t commended for doing your job. It’s your job.
If I’m a servant, it’s my job to care, to clean up, to be unappreciated, to be unnoticed and to be invisible.
That doesn’t sound like me. I like to be noticed, appreciated, compensated, commended, thanked and complimented.
If you are one of those who attribute a “servant’s heart” to me, I thank you. But I would also suggest that you don’t know me very well. My heart tends to think mostly about me rather than others. I doubt I deserve that title.
But I know many people who do. And I know someone who is the servant.
My gospel illustration of the day popped into my head (thank you, Holy Spirit!) during a hospital visit with a friend who was pretty scared about her discharge, prognosis, treatments and eventually death itself.
One of my favorite fountain pens is a Jinhao x750 that I guess you could say I actually got for free when I took advantage of a BOGO deal at the 
It’s certainly not a new way to begin a thought or statement, but lately I’ve been reflecting on the phrase, “After prayerful consideration…” I’ve heard it a lot of times and have always given credit to those who pray about whatever it is they are considering. However, I want to share a few reactions to those words. 
As I was browsing through some stories and articles on Medium, I ran across this curious statement: “The holidays do things to some people.” So I began to wonder, “What kinds of things?” Not necessarily bad things. Hopefully good things, too.
I had to go to the county courthouse today, more formally known as the Kim Hammond Justice Center. My name wasn’t on the docket or anything like that. I just had to drop off an affidavit at the clerk’s office to get my name back on the list of premarital counseling providers in the area.
So here’s what I learned in bible class yesterday. I am teaching a class on Dr. Howard Hendrick’s book Teaching to Change Lives, previously titled The Seven Laws of Teaching. It is part of our ongoing effort to quip our bible class leaders to become better teachers.
Suddenly the whole Mike Pence strategy of not being with a woman who’s not your wife has a whole lot of value. Initially he was ridiculed, but now, as celebrities, politicians and news personalities fall one by one to claims of sexual misconduct, the wisdom of setting and maintaining such boundaries makes a whole lot of sense.
Waite for it... 