LOVE AS SERVANTHOOD

"What will I get out of it?" That, unfortunately, is an automatic question when anything is presented to us. A google on the subject of “personal success” will get you over twenty-six million hits. Googling “servanthood” will bring you one-tenth of that number of hits.
The difference reveals how self-centered we are. Our Master, Jesus, bored to that precise deficiency in all of us when he washed the disciples’ feet. And Peter, the natural leader of this group of young men, represents our own assumptions about who is really great. Peter thought it had to be those who are customarily honored by position. Jesus illustrated greatness and success as acts of serving other people, disregarding our own benefits. This means for us that we reconfigure our definitions of success to treasured acts of love through self-denial.

LOVEABILITY: Fairness

I want to continue to unfold some of the secrets of making ourselves loveable. We cannot argue people into loving us, but we can be the kind of person who is easy to love. Being fair and unselfish can do wonders in that direction.
A great true account is told in "Arabian Sands," by Wifred Thesiger. It highlights the Bible's clear caution to "watch out for every kind of greed." Greed is the opposite of fairness. Thesiger tells how Bedu men, when given portons of meat, will soon be saying, "I got more than others recieved," and will offer his portion to someone else. Soon others will do likewise and before long much, even loud, arguing breaks out about whose portion is too large, until lots are cast for the divided meat.
The author says, "I never heard a Bedu man grumble that he has recieved less than his share."
How refreshing! We like people who are fair and unselfish. We put ourselves into a position of likeability when we avoid following greed and in place act fairly