“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45 NIV).
As part of my job, I am in charge of running the school laminator. After I trained with another school’s library secretary, I decided to adopt her practice of having people fill out request forms for their lamination jobs to help me know where to deliver it. One person came in with something to laminate so I said I created a “lamination station” where she could leave her job. She walked right past it over to the laminator. In her defense, next to the laminator would have been a smart choice; however, the laminator tends to move around; therefore, I had chosen a more permanent location for items to be dropped off. My hot pink and bright yellow “Lamination Station” sign was standing up vertically on the countertop. How could she have missed it?!
I recently heard a sermon about David and how his time caring for sheep prepared him to be the leader of Israel. I’ve wondered if my time working for a church was to prepare me for a school job. At the church I tried, not always successfully, to think about what I said and how I behaved because it would reflect not only on me and the church but on God. The truth is though that no matter where I am, everything I say and do still reflects on God because I claim to be His follower. Our new area seems to be overwhelmingly Christian. It amazed me to start work at a non-religious institution yet on the very first day to have religion brought up in random conversation. And before my first week was done, my supervisor had even invited me to her church.
I’ve found that people who work in a school are just the same as people who go to church. People are people, we are all the same. And yes, I said we. While I’m complaining about someone who didn’t notice my very big bright sign, I do the same thing. I too don’t pay attention or forget something or get distracted or need help with the same thing more than once. You and I and every other person we meet are all in the same boat. We are sheep. No matter about age or education level or any other attribute, we all sometimes need help with things that seem obvious or that we should already know. So my real job is to be a Christian and therefore a kind, loving, and generous servant to those around me. “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10 NIV).