Second Fiddle

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’”  Mark 9:35

To Jesus, greatness doesn’t come from what you accumulate or what you accomplish. It is not found in the power that you hold, the possessions that you own, or the place where you live. Greatness is in the people that you serve. Therefore, we should have a thankful approach to service.

One of the most frustrating things that I think every leader of every church deals with is struggling to get enough people to serve—even finding people to serve in the nursery with preschoolers, with children, or with teenagers. I believe the reason is that as Christians, our approach to service is often totally wrong. If what Jesus said is true, and the way to be great is to serve, then we should be thankful for any opportunity we get to serve, and we should be looking for opportunities to serve.

The secret to success is service. Jesus said greatness starts at the bottom—not at the top. When you are like Jesus, you will take the least desired position, you will do the job nobody else wants to do, and you will find the worst seat in the house. The great poet Henry Longfellow said, “Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambition.”

The one thing that sets apart godly leadership from worldly leadership is the idea of servant leadership. Someone once asked Leonard Bernstein, the late New York Symphony conductor, what the most difficult position in the orchestra was.  Without hesitation, he said, “Second fiddle.” Do you know why playing second violin is so much tougher than playing the piccolo or a bassoon?  It is not tougher physically; it is tougher emotionally because everybody wants to be first-chair violin, not second fiddle.

Jesus said you are going to approach life in one of two ways: either you are going to walk out the door of your house every day thinking, “How can I get other people to serve me?” or you are going to be thinking, “How can I serve other people?” What is your attitude toward service?

God, remind me that a true leader in Your kingdom is a servant leader, looking for ways to serve others rather than to be served. Grant me satisfaction in being second fiddle—may my service point people first to You, and not to myself. In Jesus’ name, amen.