daily java

Don’t demand an audience with the king
      or push for a place among the great.
It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table
      than to be sent away in public disgrace. (Proverbs 25:6-8)

Christmas of 1964, my first date. I was in ninth grace, Mary Sue Beckhusen was in eighth grade. The church had a dress-up dinner at the Holiday Inn. I invited her to go with me as my date.

The Holiday Inn was a place of unimagined fanciness, or at least it seemed to me in 1964. And if a dinner was held there, surely I had to have a good suit to go. So my parents took me to Sears in Pasadena, TX, to get a black suit to wear.

I was nervous as this was my first date. My parents drove us and I picked her up. She had on a gold brocade semi formal dress. And we were off.

We walked into the Holiday Inn banquet hall and the tables were all set up. We found chairs and sat down. Not long after we had sat down, someone came to me and told me that where we were sitting was the head table and we had to move. It was embarrassing, but we did.

I have never made that mistake since. In fact, I make it a point to never sit at the head table unless someone specifically tells me that I need to.

So many people have a problem with that. It is the desire for pre-eminence and it will get you in trouble.

To our credit, back in 1964, we sat there in ignorance. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a head table. I just sat somewhere that turned out to be the wrong place.

Right now we are going through the presidential campaign. It is an orgy of people seeking the head table. They want to be in charge. Many come into that campaign with the desire to be the head of the USA, the leader of the free world. Sometimes there is no real desire to serve, it is just the desire to live big, be seen, be kowtowed to, be respected.

I believe the presidency is a good thing and needs a good man to fill the position. But at the same time, one who just wants to sit at the head table can do a lot of harm before he is taken out of the office.

The apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 5:1-4) says: As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor.

In other words, you are not in charge because you are so wonderful, you are in charge to help the cause of Jesus.

In any organization the church included and maybe especially, people want to be in charge. They want people to see them and admire them, to respect them and defer to them.

But Jesus, when he came, gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a servant  and was born as a human being. (Philippians 2:7). When Jesus came, he came as a servant, not as an autocrat.

If more public servants would realize the servant part, that they are there to serve us, not us to serve them, more good things would be accomplished.

The same with the church. If we focused more on service and less on self-aggrandizement, the church would grow and become stronger.

The desire for the head table is vanity. Anyone who insists on being deferred to and who thinks their opinion is the only one is a fool. The Bible says that (Psalm 53:1) in that they have supplanted God and replaced him with themselves.