Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

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On another yet similar note I heard a speaker on the radio on Saturday (sorry I can't remember the name) say how, as Christians, we all like to be called servants but few of us like to be treated as a servant. He gave the example of how when he was scheduled to speak at a national conference he noticed on the printed schedule with all of the other speakers it gave their PH D's and other credentials but for him it only had his name. He felt slighted because he too had the same education as these other guys. Then he was convicted of his pride in wanting to get the credit that he deserved and realized that servant hood is just something that we do but it is an attitude of selflessness.

It really struck me with my own life. I don't like to be treated like a servant. It is one thing to do an act of service out of the "kindness of my heart" but it really grates me to be treated like a servant. It wounds my self worth I suppose. I think when I do an act of service voluntarily I am still in control, but when I am treated poorly like a servant I feel out of control and devalued.

Jesus humbled himself to not only wash the feet of the disciples but then to allow himself to be handed over to the Jews by Judas and then to the Romans by the Jews, to be beaten, spit on, mocked and crucified. Jesus "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..."