"It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they have acknowledged God. They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted them. They do not covet what belongs to others. They show love to their neighbors. They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves. They speak gently to those who oppress them and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. They live in awareness of their smallness. Everyone of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing...

If they see a traveling stranger, they bring him under their roof. They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers, after the flesh, but they know they are in the Spirit and in God. If they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed for the sake of Christ, they take care of all His needs. If possible they set him free. If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him. In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs. This emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians and this is their manner of life." ~Aristides 137 AD

Have we lost this concept? We preach on becoming servants yet seem to place greater importance on being leaders in ministry and teaching this world of their ignorance. Don't get me wrong--I am all for reaching the lost, but I sometimes wonder why there is such a push to be a leader for the kingdom when so few of us have first sought to be learners and listeners. While we scorn the Pharisees for their hypocritical attitudes we ourselves attempt to live out a dignified Christianity. High priority is placed on being respectable in one's ministry, but most of us do not know what it feels to be naked before others, despised and rejected by men. Our Savior does.

I'm tired of this idea that as a Christian I deserve respect. I don't deserve anything. I do not want to serve in order to get respect, and yet sometimes this is an underlying motive. Even as I'm singing sometimes and find myself moved to tears by what Jesus has done for me I am ashamed. I hold back a part of myself in worship because I don't want to feel embarrassed or weak from my tears.

I want to be like the woman who wiped Jesus feet with her tears, perfume, and hair.

It wasn't about her humiliation--it was about her Lord.