[Written in 2024]
We all love to be an expert of something, don't you agree?
Being an expert makes us feel supreme. Being an expert means people will look up to us for advices. Being an expert means no one would think little of us too.
In God's economy, we might unintentionally do the same, we wanted others in the church to think highly and not less of us. We love to feel like an expert, feel like a supreme leader that others will admire or listen to us.
In the Bible, we are instructed to know the real meaning of being a LEADER. Not that other people will look up to us for knowledge, not that other people will respect us more, not that other people will yield to us more than they yield to God himself. In a sharp contrast, the Bible asked LEADERS to serve others like what a SERVANT did to the Master in the house. We might have heard of people talking about the servant-liked leaders. We are not strange to its name. The Bible wanted us to serve others with a servant heart and attitude. As hard as it might sound, as ridiculous as it seems....what on earth will you think of a leader as someone else's servant?
Look around for the world leaders in our country, how are they like someone else's servant? Not at all. They look so supreme over all people in the country.
As christian leader(s) in our church community, how would you serve like a servant? Or have you ever thought of being one. Or you don't serve but you LEAD, TEACH, GUIDE, being the expert instead.
Many leaders.....would have a sense of supremacy whenever people go over to them for advices, that feeling of supremacy made them proud and puff up. Look, they come to me for advice, I must be very good and knowledgeable then. If not, why would they come to me for advice???? As those people came to us, we acted like an expert of the law, we teach them what to do, we show them what to do, we talk and talk and we regard ourselves so highly that we have forgotten to listen more. We talk more and more because we felt like an expert, we felt that our advices are what they want and therefore, they should listen to us instead of listening to them.
When we listen less, we would assume what we know is right. When we listen less of others, what we assume is very self-focussed. We think we know it. We think we are the expert. We think what we know is always correct.
The truth is whenever we listen less of others, we assumed that we know it all. Perhaps this is our proudliness that we need to be mindful of. Whenever we listen less of others, what we care is basically ourselves and not others. On the other hands, if we listen more of others, we will get to know the other person more -- their true emotional state, their true feeling behind what they actually do. If we really want to serve those in Christian community, if we really hold no supreme pride in ourselves but knowing that we are the Servant of Christ, we would have an interest knowing what others have been going through by LISTENING MORE to them. This is how we SERVE ONE ANOTHER by listening more, understanding more of what other people do what they do.
Sadly, many christian leaders are not serving like a servant. They jumped into conclusion way too quickly and many people under their leadership was badly hurt. They do not feel loved but only feeling lost and badly criticised for no good reasons.
Comment less and Listen more
Comment less and Listen more
Be the leader that God wants
For the sake of love
Serve others with a servant heart and attitude