Servanthood: In Search Of Excellence

"He must become greater; I must become less.”

John 3:30

I want to become an excellent speaker for God,” I said to a close friend, after teaching a Bible study for two years. “I know that I am doing a good job, but I want to rise to the next level. Tell me, what do you think I need to work on to become excellent?”

“I think you are doing a great job,” my friend replied. “Your gestures, your voice modulation, your syntax and structure, your eye contact—they’re really…”

“You don’t understand,” I interrupted. “I can get anyone to say those things to me. But we’re friends. What I need is for someone to take the risk and be totally honest with me. What do you really think I need to pass the threshold from good to excellent?”

“Well, I am telling you the truth. I think you are doing a great job. I couldn’t recommend a single piece of advice for improvement. But for the move from good to excellent, only the Holy Spirit can do that.”

The bulb flashed; the lights blinked on—instant truth. That was the elusive answer. The common sense way to make a bigger contribution focuses on strengthening skills. The Christ way focuses on the enabling Holy Spirit. Only the anointing of the Holy Spirit will move you to spiritual excellence.

The way to improve your contribution is to become more excellent. But spiritual greatness is not spiritual stardom; it is servanthood. God is looking for servants, not stars. The road to an improved contribution isn’t moving up in the organization; it is surrendering your motives to the Holy Spirit. Is your desire to improve your contribution for personal prestige or to garner glory for God?

Spiritual excellence is not about ascending the ladder of leadership to greatness. It is about descending the ladder of humility to servanthood. Let’s face it. It is a difficult thing to be a leader and a servant at the same time, impossible without the Spirit. Lead and serve simultaneously? How? If a leader becomes a servile sycophant, then who would follow him?

The leader/servant is a man like John the Baptist. Though strong in personality and character, he understood his role. “He must become greater; I must become less.”

Since learning that only the Holy Spirit can make one excellent, I have also discovered another secret. It is not that the Holy Spirit empowers a person to become more dynamic, eloquent, and persuasive—though all these may possibly come. Rather, it is that the Holy Spirit helps you to become nothing to yourself, you “become less.” Not servile, but a servant.

Don’t ask the Holy Spirit to increase your skill; ask Him to increase Christ. As Jesus becomes greater, your impact will enlarge, but because Christ is growing larger, not you. John the Baptist did not shrink; Christ grew larger. He became less by letting Christ become more.

His goal for you is servanthood, not stardom. The servant no longer wants to become a great man of God; he wants to become less. His love for the Lord Jesus becomes such an intense fire that he abandons all desire to be liked, to do a good job, to have a winning way, to be a great man of God. He loses interest in who holds first place. He stakes out his claim on last place. His highest aim becomes for Christ to increase, for himself to decrease.

It had been a long day when Martin Luther King, Jr., stepped to the podium. All day long men had jockeyed for position on the speaking platform. The lawn of the Washington Mall teemed with thousands of potential ardent followers. One by one King deferred to the ambitious aspirants. One by one the crowd began to dwindle. It was the tail end of the day; things were tapering off.

When all others had their say, King took his slot at the end of the schedule. Holy passion coursed through his veins. With trembling voice he declared, “I have a dream.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., went on to deliver the famous sermon which further entrenched him into the national conscience. Was it because he spoke last from the podium to a dwindling crowd? No, it was because his ambition was to be a servant, never for himself. He understood that “‘He must become greater; I must become less.’” God can use people like that.

This is the highest plateau upon which the servant can serve. It is the old gospel—Christ high and lifted up, the bondslave to Christ never competing for center stage. It is having the same attitude as Christ, taking on the very nature of a servant.

I SURRENDER

Father, I confess I have wanted to be a great man of God. I surrender my desire to be great, O God, and ask You to forgive me of my selfish ambition. Let me be filled with the power of Your Holy Spirit, and let me decrease. I will pursue excellence, not greatness; I will no longer confuse them to be the same but recognize them as opposites. Amen.