“Hey – I Need Your Help…”

“Hey – I need your help,” he says to me as I walk by him and a few of his co-workers in the hallway.

I think to myself ‘I do have a name’ as I cringe and try to continue walking.

“You see, my PC has not been functioning properly ever since the new updates have been rolled out across the network,” says Joe Smith (name for anonymous employee). “You aren’t busy are you?”

Of course not, I just walk around the workplace all day.

“This has really been bugging me and has really hampered my productivity for the past week.”

If it has been this bad, why didn’t you call the help desk??

“I’ll just let you work on this and will be back in a bit to check on you.”

Hey buddy – don’t you realize I have a bunch of other things to do today?

For any of you that work in the world of IT, you are familiar with scenario as it plays out time and time again.

Although some in the corporate world use your name and respect your schedule, many don’t even recognize you as a person and just as many don’t care about your schedule. All they care about is YOU fixing THEIR problem. In other words, they want you to serve them…and usually NOW.

This irked me as of late until the Holy Spirit pricked my heart in two areas:

First, I was reminded of the despicable pride that continually wells up in me when someone doesn’t speak to me in the way I think they should.

Who do they think they are? I mean, just because I exist to assist you with your computer needs, doesn’t mean you have to treat me with disdain!

I am reminded that if I practiced “dying daily” I would not be so put off by the way people treat me. In addition, I am reminded how good  Christ treated them who treated Him much worse than anyone has treated me.

Second, I was reminded that the greatest of all is a servant. Jesus said so Himself. I am reminded of that statement, “The true test of a servant is if you act like one when you are treated like one.” And the Holy Spirit prompted me again that instead of running from the lowly position of a servant, I ought to wholeheartedly embrace being a servant.

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The above scenario plays out all over the world in so many different areas of life. In my current ministry role as an assistant pastor, Sunday School superintendent, and youth teacher I am constantly asked to serve in different roles and in different ways. How do I act? How do I react? Am I put off by how someone approaches me just “wanting something done and not recognizing me?” Or am I just glad to serve and meet needs?

Oh God, please mold my heart to be like the heart of the ultimate Servant this world has ever seen – that of the Lord Jesus Christ!