Accepting Help

We studied John 13: 1-17 last night in class. I had always looked at this passage as "the way" to be like Jesus. Put others before yourself. "Its not about me". I thought I would share probably the most interesting look at this passage from our study from last night. Its something I had never looked at before. I think it is also something, that most men struggle with.

It all starts in verse 8 when Peter tells Jesus, "no, you are not going to wash my feet." If you are like me, serving others is a blessing. In fact, it is easy to serve others. One man commented last night how that serving others is like a "natural high" to him. But, how easy is it for us to BE SERVED? That is the topic that Peter is getting at. Think about: "Jesus, are you really going to wash my feet? I don't think so. I mean, you're Jesus. You can't wash my feet....." But Jesus very politely tells him that if he doesn't allow Him (Jesus) to wash his (Peter) feet, then he (Peter) can have nothing to do with Him (Jesus). Whoa.... Wait a minute.....

In this passage, Jesus is not only showing that you have to be a servant, but he also teaches Peter that you have to allow others to serve you. This kind of flies in the face of being proud for being self relient. Many of us (my self included) don't care too much for recieving help (well, asking for help is probably a better description). From a guy's point of view it comes across as being weak. The problem with that train of thought, is that we stop relying on people, think we can do things for ourselves, and eventually take Jesus out of the equation all together. I can do things for myself thank you very much. It sounds great. But what is the motivation behind that train of thought? Jesus is teaching Peter that you must allow others to serve you as well, so that you don't stop relying on Me (Jesus).

Look at a different way: Somebody talks about "relying on God" throughout their daily life. However, when their neighbor asks if they need help building that fence in the backyard they say, "no thanks. I got it." It may seem like a simple thing, but a cumumlative account of little things makes a huge difference in the long run. I am going to speak for myself here: usually when I say I am going to rely on God, what I am really saying is that I want Him to give me the strength to do it myself, because I don't want to have to ask someone for help. I think another way of looking at it, is if everyone were servants, who gets served?

I think this concept is going to be difficult for a lot of the 4-7 people that read this blog! It is for me, and I didn't really like it when we started talking about last night. Truth is, I still don't like it. I kind of like the fact that I am self-reliant, but I can also see how that kind of thinking can lead to being prideful in some areas of my life. I can see how easy it would be to eventually not rely on God on certain parts of my life.

Serving, and allowing others to serve you goes hand in hand. Too much of one or the other is not a good thing. Try this: ask somebody for help for anything in the next few days, for no apparent reason what so ever. At the same time, help somebody with something for no apparent reason what so ever. Any takers on what is going to be easier?