I have been thinking lately about my will and how it influences my relationship with others. I rub shoulders from time to time with some who are less easy to get along with. It may be that we disagree on something, or their sense of style or their values are different than mine. In some cases, I may have strong feelings about those differences. It is easy for me to assert my will, to say that I am right. In some cases I may even be right, but that is beside the point. I have a choice, I can demand that everyone fit into my schema, or I can surrender my will to have my way and accept people as they are. This may mean surrendering my “rightness” at some points. I have to be willing to allow someone to be (what I am convinced is) wrong. I have to be their servant. I find that I often struggle to find the humility to do this.
I have to remember what Christ has to put up with in me. As I look at my life, I have been wrong often. I have failed often. I have been different from the person that Christ would have me to me. Fortunately, He is longsuffering and loving. He is patient with me. Should I be any less with my brothers and sisters?
If we are true servants of Christ, then we are also servants to those to whom He was servant to. As Christ became a house slave and washed the feet of the disciples, including the one who would betray him, so we must become a slave in the house of God. We must serve the doubting, the loud mouth and the betrayer. It is when I become a slave to you and you become a slave to me that the whole community is reflective of Christ. In that community no one has any need to look after himself because his brothers are doing a much better job than he can do himself. However, since we too infrequently live in that community, let us do our part to serve those whom Christ served in the way that he served them to the extent that he served them.
