The word “servant” doesn’t seem to be the most popular with the world. The two years I taught in public school, we were told to encourage our students to be “college-bound” and to “develop self-confidence” and “believe in themselves.” These can all be great pieces of advice, but seem to inwardly scream, Life is all about me! This is not something you want to be pressing into the brain of an already self-focused adolescent. Eek. One thing we weren’t admonished to teach them was how to serve others above themselves. It was something I tried to teach them anyway, just as the Lord continues to teach me. It was a definite challenge, as all other sources of input seemed to be telling them to compete, to be the best, and to be respectful and courteous only inasmuch as it didn’t interfere with their “goals.”

Here in Juárez, I am continually humbled by the displays of servant hood before me. I observed extraordinary servants in the United States as well, but maybe the Lord is just heightening my awareness here. Let me tell you about Betti. At 29 years old and single, she has answered God’s call to serve. She runs an orphanage (almost single-handedly) that at any given time has between twenty and forty-five children living there. She is the administrator. She is the coordinator. She does the day-in, day-out thankless jobs that outreach teams who come for a day will never know. Just yesterday I had a chance to talk with her, about eight kids from the orphanage piled in my car as we were taking them to church, and she told me more of her story. Her humility is extraordinary and continually challenges me. She has found contentment in the Lord and where He has called her, and she credits all good done through her to Him alone. She’s told me she does get overwhelmed and she prays for more people to come help her, but she’s always so thankful for what she has now. She marvels at the miracle it is that they always have money for what they need at the orphanage, for she doesn’t know where it comes from, except of course from the Lord. Watching her teach the teenage girls at church, it is obvious the Lord has his hand on her. What would become of those kids if they didn’t have Betti there with them? What would the world be like if everyone chose to submit to the Lord in the spirit of servant hood the way Betti does? Imagine the countless lives that would know the love of Christ through people who choose to live like him!

Of course, we’re not all called to run orphanages. That was a big dream in my heart when I came down here, and maybe in the future that is something the Lord will specifically call me to, but right now I don’t believe that’s His plan for me. It’s amazing how even the smallest acts can testify of the Lord. Yesterday as I was driving, I saw an extraordinary sight. In Juárez, you have to watch out for mammoth potholes and washboard roads if you care about the shocks in your car. But even more important is to keep your eyes peeled for the open manhole covers. One wrong move and say adios to your favorite tire. So what people have done is put an old tire (maybe one that befell the fate of open manhole cover) to mark where one of these gaping holes lies. As I was driving yesterday morning, I saw that the tire covering one of the open manhole covers in the street had somehow made its way several feet from its appropriate spot. This could spell disaster for some unsuspecting victim. But then, I saw a man going to put back the tire. Not a young man who looked like that was his job, but an elderly man who was having trouble walking. He used a cane to hobble across the street, and when he arrived at the tire, he used that very cane to push the tire back over the open hole. Now, I could be wrong, but I don’t think this was his job. I think he was just a guy walking by. But I just had to ask myself, would I have stopped to do it? Would I have thought of others or only the ticking of the clock and my own schedule? I believe the Lord wanted me to see that for a reason; maybe someday I’ll be the one to put the tire back.

My favorite form of servant hood, I must say, is when it comes from a child. Don’t you just love it when children go against their self-focused nature to think of others? I have such sweet students in my English classes here. In one of my first grade classes I have a student named Dulce (which is translated “candy” or “sweet”). Sweet she truly is. I can’t really explain her any other way, other than she just loves to help out her little friends. One of the daily woes of class, especially for the little ones, is for them all to locate a pencil to use. Dulce will be the first one to give out all her pencils if she has more than one. If she has only one, she’ll offer to share it with a close by friend, and be the last to finish her work if she needs to be. If classmates need an eraser, she won’t just let them borrow her eraser, but will go to their desk and do the job of erasing their mistakes for them. She just doesn’t usually think of herself first, which is so rare. I don’t know if this little girl knows she is emulating Jesus by the things she does, but I do know that the Lord uses her to teach me about being a servant.

As I search my mind, the examples of Jesus in the lives around me are vast. The moms who cook for the kids and clean the school each day. Maria and Gilberto, the directors of this school who gave up a comfortable home and life in the States to share the love of Jesus with this community. Their son, Matthew, who at only 18 years old helps teach P.E. to the kids, runs the community store on the school grounds, and completes every odd job his parents ask of him without so much as a complaint. The directors and helpers of all the orphanages I visit, who without exception have sacrificed what the world would see as normal comforts of life in order to be comforters to children who need them desperately.

I am continually asking the Lord to fill me with the spirit of service. Even if sometimes it’s hard to see the fruit of it in my own life, He shows me through the lives of those around me, that He does use lives that are surrendered to serve. It doesn’t matter what we give up for the Lord; the reward and return will always be greater. Pray for me to remember that day in and day out when I’m not sure what this is all for. And I pray for you all too—because it doesn’t matter where we are. The Lord longs to use us as we serve Him by serving others, and the world desperately needs to see Him through us. Maybe the next time I am teaching public school, I’ll be the teacher to replace “career day” with “servant day.” Think that would go over well?

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 2:3-5