Master & Servant

In every person there is a master and a servant. Those of us who sweep our lives beneath the kitchen rug, at our best, are servants. Others who dictate the feelings of others are, at their worst, masters. But don't let these extremes take away from the balance of each lifestyles if tempered. In order to tie our shoes or eat our food, we must be masters. In order to say, "Hello!" or listen to music we must be servants. So how do we find the balance?

The Servant...

The servant takes care of everyone else without thought of how they personally may be affected. As noble as that is, this gift, if not tempered, can become the ruin of a person. How you say? Because this gift also can become an escape mechanism. A tool used in order to avoid dealing with things without guilt or shame. After all, "I was helping ____". You were present elsewhere when you should have been present in your own life. It's fulfilling to help people, but at the cost of losing yourself and those close to you it is meaningless. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?- Matthew 16:26" It doesn't matter if you gained the whole world for selfish or selfless reasons. What we do only has meaning if it is ordered by God. Everything else just gets in the way of what God wants to do in other people's lives and in our own.

The Master...

It's easy to assume the negative effects of solely becoming a master. Our mind immediately goes to a sort of dictator or abusive controller. How about someone who holds grudges? Let's see if I have this correctly.."You weren't able to master the situation, so in order to alleviate your anxiety you believe, by harboring anger, in your heart and remembering every detail of how that person wronged you, you are in some way mastering the situation or overcoming it by "Never forgetting"? I'm always taken aback by the mercy of God when He says, "Love keeps no record of wrongs- I Corinthians 13:5". Or what about when you can't face other people because, "I'm not good enough". In your solitude you are only mastering how to hide your feelings of doubt.

Ask yourself,

"Who am I today?"

"Am I a servant to help others? Or to help myself?"

"Am I a master of other people, or am I a master of my own actions"?


Who ever you are today, believe you can become someone different tomorrow--and you will be. Jesus died so that we may live-- not so that we would be in bondage to a life of imbalance.