15 Minutes of Fame or a Lifetime of Significance?

I wanted to get the job. Why? there were only six of these jobs on the entire campus. You were respected. You were admired.  If you got the job, you were in charge of a dorm for 200 college undergraduate students. You had power. So I thought. 

So after a year of hoping and dreaming of the job, I got it. But the power and authority didn't feel like I thought it would. It didn't really work like that. 

I was helping freshmen who had gotten locked out of their room. I was doing administrative paperwork. I was telling people the keep the noise down.

I quickly realized the more influential I perceived myself to be, the less effective I felt. I had the job I wanted, but the feeling of power wasn't there.  

Enter Jesus. Jesus' thoughts on power are upside down of the way we naturally think of powerful people. Jesus (in John 13)  has just one week to live. You do things very intentionally when you know you're going to die. I had a friend who had a terminal cancer; he knew just how important his last days were. He passed on important parts of the family business. He told his family he loved them. 

If you know you're going to be gone soon, you take time to pass on the most important lessons that you can. 

Jesus does it. And one of the final times he's gathered with his disciples, he gets up from the table at dinner and does something that only a servant in that age would have done. 

It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

John 13:2-5

Meals were common settings for teaching sessions from a rabbi like Jesus. He does teach, but not with words now. Washing the disciples' feet involved:

• kneeling down and removing their sandals which were covered in dust.
• actually touching their feet (I don't know the last time you touched somebody else's feet, you don't do it by accident)
• getting himself a little dirty in the process of washing the dirt off the others' feet

Why? Jesus is not seeking to become famous in this moment. He will become famous but not because he sets out to. He sets out to serve. They will understand in a few days time, after he is killed and comes back to life, how he truly washed the dirt from their lives.

Where are you seeking fame? What would it look like to serve somebody today. Serving will lead to a life that is significant. And significance is way better than fame, which will last about 15 minutes.