Servant Leader

Last night I had the privileged of sitting down with a group of students who I believe hold the power to have a HUGE impact on not only Polk Co., but the world. I couldn't help but think of how our high school leadership team is made up of a variety of different people. Each student has different skills and characteristics that God has blessed them with to lead. I'm excited to see what God does in these students not only in the next year, but throughout their lives.

Pastor Rick asked me to share a short devotional with the group during the meeting. When he asked me to do it and that he wanted it to be on the topic of leadership I knew right from the start what I was going to talk about. One of the greatest examples of what it takes to be a leader is in...surprise surprise...Jesus.

John 13:1-17 paints the perfect picture of what it takes to be a servant leader. Jesus does the unthinkable and washes the feet of the disciples. I don't think we can understand how lowly of a task this job was because we have been blessed with shoes and access to showers. I mean most of us if we took off our shoes and socks people wouldn't take off running...(no worries mom I'm not going to call you out...I'll save that for when I get more readers! lol). The best understanding I've ever had of it is that my brother used to never wear socks. His shoes would smell so bad that my dad would force him to sit his shoes outside the back door whenever he took them off. Sorry bro...but I often wondered if you were cursed with halitosis of the feet. :-)

When I was a freshman in college my resident advisers did a foot washing one night with each of the guys on our floor. It was a humbling experience to sit down and let two guys, who were about my age, wash my feet. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it had to have been for the disciples to let Jesus wash their feet. I mean seriously....can you imagine?

Pastor Rick closed the night with informing the students that if the students wanted to be involved in the leadership team he wanted them each to take a hand towel out of the pile of hand tiles in the middle of the circle. He asked that if the students took a hand towel then he wanted them to bring it in their pocket every week to youth group on Wednesday night. He wanted the towel to be a reminder that being a leader is a messy position and when we are servant leaders there are some messes that we have to clean up. The towels also remind us that while we have a position, we are not above those we are serving.

God's going to do some great things in this leadership team!