Fool has such a bad connotation that when we hear the word we immediately think of less than informed people, things done without thought and more importantly we question motives regarding behavior.
Servant Hospitality is being a fool for others. In the eyes of those less understanding we truly are not with it – we have lost our senses. What motivates us to act like this – what is our reward, and why?
A fool is thought of as an individual with less qualities than the majority and one whose actions defy the norm. In many cases that is true, especially when it comes to obvious mistakes, actions and reactions to situations.
Let us look at a true fool – the Apostle Paul. Second Corinthians 11:16…talks about his asking people to accept him as a fool based on human standards. As it goes on to state in vs 19….For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves. For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face. His message is quite clear. He was talking about believers who believed but did nothing regarding their faith. Paul undertook beatings, floggings, imprisonment, nakedness, poverty, stoning, hunger and thirst – all for a belief in Christ.
Are you willing to risk all of the dangerous beliefs of outsiders for the life of servanthood? You are not being asked to be put in prison but you are being asked to give up thinking of yourself first for the good of others.
Would you like to know what type of reward you have?
Contentment!
On the job, doing the right thing in the service of others may require your being ridiculed for always trying to do the right thing, going in on your day off to cover for someone, helping in another area other than the one for which you were hired, perhaps even loaning a fellow worker a pair of black socks, or just listening to someone who is in the midst of a situation and does not have the answer.
What can you count as loss your time spent in the service of others? Do you even think about it? Should you even think about it?
Too many employees are left on their own, as their supervisors have told them, “You have been trained, now do it.” What they have failed to remember is my favorite saying, once trained, always training.
Why do we leave people alone? Are we just aggrevated that we have to spend time with them? Do we really care? Perhaps the person just cannot do the job and we have put off the initial process of termination. In this case, we have become a fool for NOT doing what is right. Termination is not always a bad thing, but that is a later discussion.
As a CEO, supervisor or department head, are we willing to become the fool in the service of others? Are we willing to be LABELED a fool in our struggles to always do the right thing? Are we a fool by listening to others and making decisions that make us look good because we GET ALONG with others and do not rock the boat?
OR, are we a fool for out beliefs that everyone is my brother or sister and deserves an equal shot at life and the rewards that it brings, when all of us together serve each other, are without cost?
Now, that really is a discussion for another day.
Blessings.