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Editorials
for Autumn 2003
The Heart of a
Servant
Editorial by Anne Faidley
 “Anne.”
Again?
“Anne. Anne!”
“Yes, I’m coming. What do you need?”
“I need you to pour me a drink of water. I feel too sick to sit up.”
“Alright, there it is.”
“And fix my pillow. That blind is too high…lower it a bit. And can
you start my CD?”
“There we
go…you’re all set up.”
I begin to descend the stairs, only to hear a bell ring from another
room. "Oh Lord, help me!"
This month our family experienced repeated bouts with a severe
respiratory flu—one of the reasons this issue was delayed. Through the
days (and nights) of nursing sick siblings, the Lord taught me a number
of things. I’d like to share with you a few thoughts about what it
means to have a servant’s heart. What exactly is a servant?
Oftentimes, when we hear that word, we think of a person who does
distasteful and menial tasks. President Woodrow Wilson thought
differently. He said, “The princes among us are those who forget
themselves and serve mankind.” A true servant has a willing heart and
helping hands with an attitude of “Here I am! Send me!” Having a
servant’s heart means joyfully, not begrudgingly, lending a
helping hand wherever needed.
To serve well, we must know, intimately know, the Great Servant, Jesus
Christ. Hannah Whitall Smith wrote that “Nothing else but seeing God
in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and
trouble us.” How can we truly love others unless we go to the Source
of Love? When we go to God to have our needs and desires met, then we
can turn around, with open heart and hands, to help a hurting world.
The best example of a true servant is Jesus Christ. He left everything
for us. Philippians 2 says that our attitude “should be the same as
that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”1
If this is what our Savior—the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—did
for us, can we not lay down our own plans, our own desires, to help and
serve those around us?
Humility is something that a true servant must possess. “Humble people
are so focused on serving others, they don’t think of themselves.”2
Oftentimes, the things we do are behind-the-scenes and go unnoticed.
Sometimes the work is distasteful or not our preferred chore. But we
still should work diligently, wholeheartedly, at whatever task it is. Do
it for Jesus Christ. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,
as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will
receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ
you are serving.”3
It is the Lord Christ you are serving! Wow…that changes everything,
doesn’t it? When we realize that everything we do—washing dishes,
doing laundry, wiping counters, caring for younger siblings—is for our
Lord, our perspective changes. Instead of household drudgery, these
tasks are serving and bringing glory to our King.
Ever thought to yourself, “I hope they don’t ask me to help! Just
now, I’m right in the middle of an exciting book and don’t want to
be disturbed!” I know I have. Recently, I’ve realized that
availability is another essential quality of a servant. “A Christian
is the sort of person who can be asked to do whatever needs to be done
without retorting, ‘That’s not my job.’ ”4 Rather than
being self-centered, a servant makes his own schedule and priorities
secondary to the wishes of those he is serving. He is ready and willing
to help, wherever needed. For as long as I can remember, my mother
has taught us to come into a room, evaluate what needs to be done, and
do it without being asked. This is initiative—to go above and beyond
what is required. John Wesley summed up this quality well. “Do all the
good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people
you can, as long as you ever can.”
Most importantly, I learned that all must be done with a heart
overflowing with love—love for God and love for others. “A Christian
should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on
their number and excellence, but on the love of God which prompts him to
do these things.”5 When we put God first and love Him most of
all, we’re free to love others, even with their weaknesses and
shortcomings. In all our serving, it is easy to lose sight of our
vision, our purpose for living. We must never forget who we are living
for—Jesus Christ. We should daily offer our life to Him, asking
“Lord, what are Your plans for me? What would You have me to do?”
I’ve found that setting goals and reviewing them often helps me to
stay focused on Christ and what He wants to do in my life. In closing,
I’d like to share my goals with you.
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…as for me and my
household, we will serve the Lord.”6
~ To glorify God in everything I think, say, and do.
~ To love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
~ To seek God wholeheartedly.
~ To daily offer my life as a living sacrifice to God.
~ To become more like Jesus each day.
~ To become wise and discerning.
~ To trust in the Lord.
~ To redeem the time and accomplish something each day that will last
for eternity.
~ To use my spiritual gifts, skills, and talents for God’s glory.
~ To become a woman of prayer.
~ To lift up biblical womanhood.
~ To set a godly example for those looking up to me.
~ To praise God in every situation.
~ To deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Jesus.
Notes:
1 Phil. 2:5-7, NIV.
2 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren.
3 Col.3:23-24, NIV.
4 On Asking God Why by Elisabeth Elliot.
5 St. John of theCross.
6 Josh.24:15, NIV.
Embracing the
Hard Things
Editorial by Laura Faidley
It slipped into our house unnoticed. We were unprepared. It began its
work and we fell victim. The stealthy invader was
influenza. As I lay in bed day after day, I assumed a hurt, withdrawn
attitude towards the Lord. I was pouting. Why did this have to
happen—now? What did God think He was doing? Why wasn’t I getting
better? My mind was full of questions and doubts.
Being confined to my bed, I had lots of time—days—to think it all
through. And in the end, I realized I had been wrong to ever doubt. I
ran to Jesus’ arms and asked forgiveness. Here I had been brooding
over myself, my pain, my problems, and I had forgotten how great
Jesus’ love for me was. In my pain, I’d run away from my Comfort and
Strength! I don’t know what you’re doing to me, I prayed, but I
don’t have to understand it all. Because I know You are good and You
love me…all the time. You made me and no one better knows how to care
for the creation than the Creator.
God never uses a man greatly until He hurts him deeply, the saying goes.
Have you ever noticed that all the godly people you know, the people you
look up to, have been through difficult times in their lives? Think of
all the great men and women of the faith—Job, John, Fanny Crosby,
Corrie Ten Boom—to name only a few. Elizabeth Elliot says, “If
you are going to know Jesus Christ in an intimate, personal, and life
changing way, it will never be done without the acceptance of
suffering.”1 Sometimes the difficult things God sends are big and
sometimes they are little. It may be the death of a friend. Helping your
sibling when you would rather be reading that new book.
Offering to finish up those dishes because Mom looks so tired. Staying
home from an activity you really wanted to go to. Whatever it may be,
the important thing is our response. Suffering can make us bitter or
better. “We can sing about our faith, we can write about our faith, we
can talk about our faith, but the test, the real final irreplaceable
test is our response to suffering. God instructs the heart through
suffering an adversity.”2
How should we respond to the hard things? Paul says, “Consider it pure
joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you
know that testing of your faith develops perseverance.”3 How can hard
things be a joy? When we see them as God does—in light of eternity.
“For our light and momentary trials are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all.”4 He brings and allows the hard
things out of love—because He wants to bring us nearer, higher, closer
to Him. Jesus loves us so much that He is determined to perfect us. He
sees the beauty that will be. It’s so easy in the midst of a hard
situation to forget the big picture—our being conformed to the image
of Christ.
The story was once told of a certain potter well-known for his beautiful
pieces. A man went to visit him one day and watch him at his work. He
noticed the potter would remove a piece from the furnace, tap it, and
then either return it to the furnace or leave it to cool. When he
inquired why the potter kept tapping each piece, the man replied, “The
pottery must stay in the furnace until it sings when I tap it. Then I
know it is done.” May we be like that pottery!
Are we willing to accept those little things—with joy—that cut
across our will? Someone wisely noted, when the will of God and man
cross, someone has to die. In Dietrich Bonhoffer’s words, “When
Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die.” That is what Jesus
is asking us to do in the hard things—die to our own will, our own
way, our own plans. Because He has a better plan. A grand
plan—transformation. We must empty ourselves of self, so Jesus can
fill us with Himself. Betty Stam, martyred missionary to China,
wrote the following prayer before she left the United States. It has
become my prayer as well:
“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and
hopes, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all
utterly to thee to be thine forever. Fill me and seal me with thy Holy
Spirit. Use me as thou wilt. Send me where thou wilt. Work out thy whole
will in my life, at any cost, now and forever.
Our natural response to affliction is usually the question of “why?”
Why did God allow this hard thing? We may never know God’s purposes.
We may never understand all the reasons. After all, if God were small
enough to be understood—if we could fathom God and all His will—He
would be too small to worship. “We will never sort out intellectually
the mystery of suffering. We only know that it is a fact of life. It’s
part of God’s purpose for us because He’s working toward a much
higher purpose which is the praise and glory and honor of Christ. It is
absolutely required of Christians that we learn how to suffer and how to
accept it. And I am convinced that in acceptance lieth peace.”4
1 Peter gives us a glimpse into the “why”: “These [trials] have
come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes
even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”5 Why? So that
we may be tested, our faith proved genuine. So that we may build
character. To see it if we really mean it when we say, “Anything with
you, Jesus. Your will be done.” But God knows our frame is dust; He
will not test us beyond what we can bear. When we accept these difficult
things with joy and try to see what God wants to teach us, the result is
the praise, glory, and honor of God, a stronger faith, and a brighter
witness. We often begin to doubt God when suffering comes. But, really,
who do wethink we are? Even Jesus learned obedience by what he suffered.
Are we above Him? He suffered to the point of death—for you and me.
Will we not accept these little things, in comparison, with joy? The
disciples considered it a privilege to suffer for Jesus! They were
“rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace
for the Name.”6
America today wants comfort and fun, and if something doesn’t meet
those qualifications, than we don’t want to do it! Is that a
Christ-like attitude? Did Jesus save us for comfort and fun? No! The way
of the cross is hard. “Whoever would come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow Me.”7
But in the end it will be worth it. We must learn the secret of
surrender—all that we have, all that we are, all that we do, and yes,
all that we suffer. We must learn to give up the right to ourselves, our
plans, and offer it up to God as a sacrifice, with a heart of
thanksgiving and worship. Offer up the big and little hard things
because no sacrifice is too small if our heart’s attitude is right.
Thank God for the furnace—the suffering, the affliction, the grief,
the loneliness, the hurt, the disappointment. If we complain and resent
the affliction, He cannot work out His purposes. It won’t work if we
just grit our teeth and say, “Alright, God, I’ll endure this.” The
heat of the furnace must then be turned up to break our will, to melt us
so He can skim out the impurities. The potter will return us to the kiln
for more time to cure if we do not sing.
We must let go. Accept. Take joy. Embrace the hard things because we
know their purpose. Let Him use these trials to fashion for Himself a
beautiful golden vessel, a jewel, a piece of pottery that reflects His
light to the world. When we’re caught up in the difficulty it’s hard
to see the big picture. Keep trusting. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Abba’s
compassion and care for you is everlasting—it’s the only thing you
can truly rest in! And we must learn to trust Christ totally...and obey
immediately. May we echo Much-Afraid, “Only have your will and way in
me, Shepherd. Nothing else matters...I must love you as long as I
continue to exist. I cannot live without loving you.”8
Notes:
1 Thank God for the Furnace talk by E. Elliot.
2 Ibid.
3 Jas. 1:2-3, NIV.
4 Thank God for the Furnace.
5 2 Cor. 4:17, NIV.
6 Acts 5:41, NIV.
7 Lk. 9:23, NIV.
8 HindsFeet on High Places by H. Hurnard.
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