Join me in my sacrificial service to those who are in need.  I did not come into your history to be served but to serve.  I still serve.  I am a servant.  My people are a servant people.

As a member of my body, you are a servant to human need wherever you find it.  I ask you to begin serving in your home.  Think of the persons in your family to whom you represent my love.  How can you take the towel and basin and serve them?  Look for ways you can be helpful to those whose lives you touch in the family.

If you live alone, keep in touch with the members of your family.  Write them cards.  Telephone them. Let them now they are not forgotten.  Keep your relationships alive.  You need not mention my name to them each time you make contact.  I can speak through your voice even when my name is not mentioned.  

– Ben Johnson, I Stand at the Door, CTS Press, 1986, 10-11.

³  Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God.  ⁴  So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist.  ⁵  Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing.  ⁶  When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 

⁷  Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but you will understand later.” 

⁸  “No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” 

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” 

⁹   Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!” 

¹⁰   Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.”  ¹¹ He knew who would betray him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you is clean.” 

¹²   After he washed the disciples’ feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. He said to them, “Do you know what I’ve done for you?  ¹³  You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am.  ¹⁴  If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet.  ¹⁵  I have given you an example: just as I have done, you also must do.  ¹⁶  I assure you, servants aren’t greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them.  ¹⁷  Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them.

John 13:3-17

Who are people in your life who have served you? Who have showed you the love and care of Jesus?  Our invitation to service, begins at home today?  Find a way to live out your answer to that invitation as you move through this day.  

Holy Lord,
Help me to receive your incredible love for me.
Allow your love to overflow within me,
so that it might spill out in service to others.
Help me to serve the people closest to me today.
Forgive me for the times they get the worst of me,
or are only given the left overs of myself at the end of the day.
Help me to show them the love I have received from you.
As you have done, help me to do.
Amen