I got to the office a bit early one morning and went to the breakroom for coffee. I noticed that the person who usually unloads the dishwasher had not gotten around to it yet, so I started putting away the mugs and utensils. A colleague walked in and quipped, “You’ve got dish duty today, eh?” I wish I could tell you that my immediate reaction was one of genteel humility, but it was not. What I really wanted to say was something along the lines of, “Dish duty?! As far as totem poles go, buddy, I’m on the same level as you. So, why don’t you make yourself useful and load that dirty coffee mug that you just set in the sink for someone else to do?” Instead, I bit my tongue and faked a smile as I said, “Nope – just helping out.”

I’m constantly fighting similar battles at home: “That’s not mine;” “I didn’t put it there;” “Oh, I didn’t see it” [the fifteenth time he walked over it]; etc. Sometimes I think I live with the “Not Me” ghost from The Family Circus comic!

Whether it’s in the workplace, at home, in the church or elsewhere, why do we resist serving?

When a leader performs an act of service, it does not belittle them in the eyes of their subordinates. On the contrary, getting on their “level” for a change can actually boost morale and increase loyalty. Check out the unfortunate story of King Rehoboam in I Kings 12. Rehoboam’s father was the famous King Solomon, but the son did not seem to inherit the father’s widely acclaimed wisdom. When the commoners asked Rehoboam for an act of kindness, not only did he ignore the wise counsel of the elders in favor of his smart-aleck friends, but he also insulted his late father. (In verse 10, Rehoboam boasted that his pinkie finger was bigger than his father’s … well, let’s just say that one English translation is “loins” … and you can read between the lines.) Rehoboam came across as a braggadocios jerk, and his conceit led the people to rebel against him.

Let’s focus our prayer time this week on service.