A WORD FOR TODAY, June 17, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 17, 2025
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.’ He said to them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’Jesus said to them, ‘You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.’ When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant toward James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, ‘You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever of you wants to become first among you shall be bondservant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:35-45, WEB
I went into retail as a career after I graduated from college. I began working the check-out and doing some floor work like stocking shelves, but I was eventually invited to join the management training program at the company. After a time, I was head-hunted away to a larger company. I continued in a training program there but had more responsibility. The stores were bigger, the yearly income had a lot more zeros, but there was also so much more to do. I was not able to manage the new store the way I enjoyed at the smaller company.
Unfortunately, many managers are of the opinion that they are better than their employees. Of course, they are generally better educated, often with a degree in business management, but that doesn’t necessarily make anyone better. I had a degree, though in a different field, but I went into the training programs with the desire to learn. Thankfully the manager in my first store was a humble man. He taught me that even though I was “the boss” I was not above the hard work. Many of my managerial peers thought they were too important for menial tasks. The employees in those stores knew the manager had no respect for them and they approached the work with contempt. Those store managers generally have a high turnover rate for employees. Sadly, that’s what happened in the bigger company. My first store had employees that had been there for decades. Most of them knew better how to run the store than I did.
Under that humble manager, I learned that it is important for those in charge to show respect to each and every employee, whether they are janitor or bookkeeper, stock boy or cashier. I never asked an employee to do something I had not done myself, and at times I was found scrubbing the bathroom or unloading a truck. My boss and I often jumped in to do a task if there was no one able to do it at that moment.
The benefit of this attitude is that the employees rarely grumbled about doing something we asked, because they knew that we had done those tasks. We understood that some jobs were difficult or disgusting, physically exhausting or emotionally draining because we had done them. The employees knew we could do it, but they learned that it was their responsibility, and that we had other work we had to do. They understood that our job as manager should not be weighed down by those burdens, and they respected us enough to do the work because we respected them, too.
We all want to be important. In our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ, we have opportunities to hold positions of authority. We are elected to the church council or asked to teach a Sunday school class. Many of us have jobs in the world that give us the responsibility of leadership. Our relationship with Jesus should show in the way we take upon those responsibilities. There is certainly a difference in the real world of churches that those who lead a bigger church cannot take on the smaller tasks, like when I went to the big company, but we are reminded even then to be humble. I saw a joke the other day that showed a megachurch holding a raffle for a chance to meet the pastor. Quite frankly, I didn’t think it was very funny.
Jesus Christ was the ultimate manager. He is the Servant King, one who did far more than He ever asked of His disciples. He knows each of us personally and provided the perfect model of a life of faith that glorifies God, even willingly going to the cross to die for us. The other disciples were upset with James and John because they thought they were better than the others. In a sense they were because they were part of Jesus’ inner circle. But Jesus reminded them that we have faith because of His humble service to us, and that we are to walk in His light and do His work as He did. We should never allow our position in God’s Kingdom become one where we consider ourselves more important than any other Christian. We are called to be servants, knowing that Christ did it first for us.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org