There is a difference between servant-hood and servitude!

I find annual cancer screenings as dreadful as dental appointments. I put them off until I can’t procrastinate any longer!
Welcome to Coffee Hour and Monday’s Mantra with Trench Classes United; a division of Chicklit Power Ministries.
 
I’m sure my hesitancy falls into the “normal” category when it comes to routine cancer screening. Even though I feel healthy, I realize test results can prove otherwise. I have had tests prove otherwise. I always pray God will grant me concrete results, regardless of the outcome. Still, I arrived at my mammogram appointment tense and nervous.
 
My mammography technologist picked up on my tension. She immediately went to work to diffuse it. As she put me through the routine procedures, she engaged me in conversation. Somewhere along the way, our conversation turned to the subject of food. I hardly remember the mammogram. I vividly remember her recipes for corned beef, cabbage, and Spanish rice! She accomplished what she set out to do, ensuring that everyone who enters her exam room leaves relaxed and comfortable. This honorable woman of God displays the perfect example of servant-hood.
 
As Christians, we can confuse servant-hood with servitude. Servitude implies slavery and involuntary labor. Someone ensnared in servitude serves out of a sense of fear and duty. Someone serving in the spirit of servant-hood does so willingly with a sense of love and commitment. Servant-hood is beautifully illustrated in John 13:12-15.
 
“When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example: that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
 
In Matthew 20:28 Jesus defined servant -hood when he said, “the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
 
By the grace of God, we all can rise to the calling of true servant-hood. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can fulfill possibilities otherwise unknown. We need only to allow God to guide us.
 
The greatest among you shall be your servant. (Mathew 23:11)
 
Your questions and comments are always welcome.
Lovingly in Christ,
Megan