My hands said it all

This week didn't start the way I had exactly planned. I left some drinks in the freezer over the weekend and guess what happened to them. So I return to the office on Monday to the news that there is a mess in one of the freezers. So I spent the first 2 hours of my week cleaning out a freezer. And all the time I'm complaining to myself about the fact that I'm cleaning this freezer. I'm thinking, "this is below me"..."this is a waste of my time"..."I should be doing more important things for the church or for God or for me"....Pretty lousy attitude huh?!

So Tuesday comes and again I am reminded of another mess from the weekend that I have to clean up by the end of the day. This time it is some dirty, rust-covered, soot-filled barrels. Great now I'm gonna get dirty. I look around to see who I can get to take this mess off my hands, but I can't sluff this off on anyone else. So I get out the sun and start cleaning up these barrels and putting them away. During the task I have some time to do some thinking...and I'm right back where I was on Monday...grumbling. Insert previous grumblings here. Then at some point in the process I get sick of my own complaining. I just stop working, sit still and look down at my hands....

....Staring back up at me are a pair of dirty hands. I don't normally get dirty hands in my line of work. But at the sight I pause and ask myself, "Is this really below me?" "Are there really more important things I should be doing for God right now or is that just my selfishness rising up again?" Then I began to consider, what might Christ be thinking about as he did these things. Would he grumble? Would he delegate to a disciple? And I was reminded of some words that described him.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus, the God-man, the King of Kings and Prince of Peace the one who was above everyone he interacted with, did not seek to be served but to serve others.
"he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him." Jesus willingly did what no one would choose to do. He humbled himself to the position of the lowest servant. He didn't demand a high position or special treatment. He did the unthinkably mundane and low task, to express his humility to the task given to him by his Father.

"being in very nature God, [he] 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. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" The king became a servant so that undeserving servants could reign with the king. That is the gospel. My desperate need for repair drove Jesus to give up his status to serve my punishment. So how should I, a forgiven sinner, respond when mundanely low needs arise? As a someone who expects to be served or as one who (being forgiven much) is willing to follow in the steps of my Savior and humbly serve others. And although my heart was in the right place, my hands said it all.