Mark Devotionals
[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
Imagine a (power) pyramid. Worldly achievement and authority/power dictates that success is measured by the extent you go higher, reaching the tip, or “apex”. As you get closer to the apex, there are fewer people above you, and more people below you. Until you reach the tip; you’ve made it – you’re the top boss! Jesus changed this picture of greatness, giving new meaning to spiritual success; and he showed the way. Yes, it is good to have an ambition to reach the tip; but Jesus’ pyramid is inverted – upside-down! The closer he got to the apex, the more did he feel the weight/burden of the world on him. Until reached the tip, there where on a cross “the Lamb of God carried the sins of the whole world”. The measure of “Christ-greatness” is following his kind of ambition – downward on an inverted pyramid toward the tip, where greatness to manifested in being the servant of all. How ambitious are you?
Prayer: Give me an ambition Lord Jesus to be just like you. I know the world looks up to people that achieve much, people that crave recognition. Forgive me when I sometimes “slip” and want the same things too. But when I look at your life Lord Jesus, I see someone that had so many opportunities to use your “fan following” for your own ends, yet you walked away and instead became as a servant to wash your disciples’ feet and even give your precious life as a ransom, a payment, for ours. Teach me to be a servant Lord, just like you. And when the burden , the weight of those I carry for you seem too much for me, please grow your strength in me. I cannot do this by myself. I need you, and the sisters and brothers you’ve given me. Amen.
