Reflection
Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first
among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.
Mark 10:45-46
These words of Jesus are not in seen any campaign ads. Rather, most politicians seem to be seeking power instead of service. Boasting, arrogance, self-aggrandizement and the attempted destruction of one’s opponent are unfortunately the accepted norm. Jesus told his disciples that service and humility are the path to leadership. A servant leader might be considered weak and even mocked in our present culture. Jesus didn’t see it that way. He rebuked the apostles for their misguided ambition. Ambition is good when it will motivate a man or woman to achieve success with pure motives and a heart of service. Ambition is not the problem; it is how we go about pursuing our ambitions.
Prayer
God loves justice and right.
Psalm 33
Action
Consider your opinions on a servant leader? Do you think it is possible? Do you practice it yourself in your own sphere? How can you reflect that?
Suggested Reading
“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”
Mark 10:42
For leadership there is only one road: service. There is no other way. If you have many qualities , the ability to communicate, etc. , but you are not a servant, your leadership will fail, it is useless, it has not power to gather [people] together… Leadership must enter into service, but with a personal love for the people.
Pope Francis
The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.
Robert Greenleaf
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi
Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The true heroes of the new millennium will be servant leaders, quietly working out of the spotlight to transform our world.
Ann McGee-Cooper
Servant-leadership is more than a concept, it is a fact. Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly.
M. Scott Peck
Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.
Marian Anderson
A leader lives with people to know their problems. A leader lives with God in order to solve them.
John C. Maxwell
A person who is worthy of being a leader wants power not for himself, but in order to be of service.
Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
Leadership is not about personality, possessions, or charisma, but all about who you are as a person. I used to believe that leadership was about style but now I know that leadership is about substance, namely character.
James C. Hunter
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln
In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.
Stephen Covey