The picture of Jesus washing his disciples’ dirty, sweaty, and dusty feet is incredibly humbling to me—His quiet, bold love toward the 12 and also the humility required to allow the Savior to wash a particularly disgusting part of their bodies. I relate to Peter when he asks, “Master, you wash my feet?” It just doesn’t seem appropriate that Jesus Christ the Messiah would do such a thing. Jesus shows this kind of quiet but bold love to us every day if we have our eyes open to it. It is always un- deserved on our behalf, but so willingly given. In our lives, Jesus also uses other people to lavish this kind of quiet, bold, underserved love and service to us.
For the youth ministry, an example of this humbling servant-leadership has come from Buist Community Assistance Center. They donate between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds of food to our youth ministries each month. If the average pound of food costs $2.50, they donate (conservatively) $49,000 of food to us each year. What did we do to deserve that kind of love and service? They have a new team of volunteers each day working on their food pantry, clothes pantry, and skids of food items they donate to over 25 area ministries. Their volunteers put in 350 hours per week in or- der to serve not only those who struggle in our community, but ministries and organizations that are making a difference for His kingdom in the Byron Center area.
I am reading a book by Bob Goff, and in it he says that love is not something we fall into, but something we become in Christ. All of this makes me wonder, who am I loving and serving so undeservingly? How am I becoming more like Jesus’ love? I encour- age you to ask yourself these questions in the presence of God’s unde- served and in- credible love for you.
by Kaylee Mys