Who is Greatest?

“The greatest among you will be your servant.  
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” 
                                                                                                  Matthew 23:11,12.
I use to be a member of a very good church choir. We’d sing weekly in the church and our talents didn’t go unnoticed. As a result we’d sing at other venues from time to time. We even sung on television.
During the weekly performances we’d quite often have a hard time getting a lot of people to turn out for rehearsals and the weekly performance.
Twice a year Christmas and Easter however we’d put on incredible performances that integrated music and drama.
For those performances we had no problem attracting people to the choir.
There were required auditions but people lined up to audition there were no shortage of people who wanted to perform in those performances. They were prestigious.
After however the numbers in our choir again took a nose dive to a dedicated few.
I know what it’s like to be in front of audiences. Not only did I perform in that choir but my full time job is as a professional clown.
I perform in front of groups ranging from a few kids at a birthday party to large gatherings.
The thrill of the performance no matter how big or how small is still one of the best feelings you can ever have. And to get accolades after it, it’s even better.
But I’ve found to be a good children’s performer you have to be humble. Jesus said,
“The greatest among you will be your servant.  
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” 
                                                                                                  Matthew 23:11,12.
I had a partner briefly once that couldn’t understand why we were not invited to share in the food and cake at particularly a children’s birthday party.
I had to explain to her that we were hired servants. That the best we should expect was to receive our pay, which was significant.
It was something she never understood and I stopped using her as my partner.
There are too many people like her in the world.
I was once at a men’s church function when we were asked as an ice breaker to tell a little about ourselves. About what we did.
I always get a laugh (what’s not to laugh about a clown) so I went first.
As people introduced themselves I found that I’d sat with two vice presidents of different companies, the manager of a bank and one man who was almost to shy to speak.
He said nervously “I’m a garbage man.”
To his surprise one of the VP’s said, “Fantastic a real working man. You are a true servant. If I went on strike no one would notice but you on the other hand are one of the most vital services we have. It’s not everyone that can do what you do.”
The VP. was sincere in what he was saying. He quoted Matthew 23:11,12. The conversation then turned to that garbage man.
I’d never imagined so many questions could be asked about garbage.
The proceedings had a very up lifting effect on the man.
Later he came to me and said. “I never thought I was important. I only took the job because I couldn’t get anything better and the pay and benefits were half decent.”
It was something I’ve never forgotten. He actually had a university degree that had proved useless to him and a family to support. Thus the reason he’d taken the job.
From that point on he was proud about his work.
We should all be like that man. Even Jesus humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples.
Tell me are you a humble person or are you always looking for a way to shout “look at how great I am”? Think about it.