When practice makes progress.
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” ~Philippians 2:5-7
One of the things I’m always combing scripture for is any nugget of God’s character… Who is this God I serve? How can I know him more or see him more clearly? SO when I find passages like this… where his mindset is clearly spelled out… I geek out a little! I look up words in other languages and I read commentaries to find out how all the smart people in the world have interpreted these words. Here’s what Danny Saavedra added to my study: “The greek word {for this mindset} is ‘phroneo’ … and it implies both thought and action”. He goes on to explain how difficult it is to translate into English because it’s 2 ideas at once. It’s both visceral and cognitive. So, simultaneously, we are CHOOSING the mind of Christ (humble, servant, other-centered thoughts and actions) and DEVELOPING the mind of Christ. We enter into a cycle of conscious effort and decision making AND a process of becoming.
This week we received a HIGH URGENCY request for help with a move. Can I tell you NOTHING about this process was convenient. Many of our staff and volunteers were out of town and pulling together something this big, this fast was no small sacrifice for our first time volunteer! But she made a decision… to be others-centered. She put her own convenience and her own plans aside to serve this family. She chose the mindset of Christ.
Here’s some recent feedback from a case manager:
“A short notice request is inconvenient for everyone and stress is running high, But the church is a reliable source of support. A friendly face can diffuse a lot of the anxiety and fear in these situations”
When we put OTHERS FIRST… when we humble ourselves to a place where we no longer see everything we have as “for our own advantage”… when we serve… we consciously practice the mindset of Christ and we also develop HIS character as our “second nature”. May we continuously choose and become, choose and become, choose and become more and more like the master. May our moments of Christ-likeness draw our neighbors to his peace! And may those moments increase in frequency and intensity as we grow! ~amen
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