"If serving is beneath you, then leading is beyond you." I read this quote during my morning devotional time today and it resonated so well with my heart and soul that I thought I would share it through our Flat Tire thought for the week. This past Friday, I had the pleasure of having lunch with some of our school board members and a fine group of student leaders at Mary Hughes Elementary School as part of School Board Appreciation month. Known as Student Ambassadors, this group of young ladies and gentlemen gathered to learn more about our board members and how their decisions and responsibilities are carried out. During our lunch meeting the students shared their own responsibilities within the school that included efforts to support the student body, work in their community, and help taking care of those that are less fortunate than themselves. Servant leadership 101. I asked the group what they thought the term servant leadership meant and through their conversation and short discussion we landed on taking care of other’s needs.
That is exactly what leadership is about to me, leaders serve those that they lead. The Student Ambassadors shared about serving homeless folks in our community, taking care of needs at their school, and a long list of other service activities that benefited their classmates, their school, and their community outside of the four walls of their school. What a grand picture of servant leadership in action! Not once did this team of student leaders ever mention having others do something for them. Developing leaders that do instead of wanting to tell others what to do, is as important today as it ever has been in our country's history.
Serving others is a fundamental key to becoming a leader, and placing the needs of someone else before our own needs is where true leadership resides. You may be reading this and thinking that you hope those in leadership positions are fulfilling their servant responsibilities, but actually, you may need only to find a mirror and look at the reflection you see and realize that the person looking back at you is a leader to someone or to a group of someones. From the students serving their school as Ambassadors to a community gathering in Bluff City I attended on Saturday, I have been blessed to be surrounded by servant leaders this weekend. But, servant leadership is not confined to being part of a group or an organization, being a servant leader happens as you participate in athletics, in the workplace, and throughout the world in which you live individually. Regardless of your current role in life, you have an opportunity to serve others. When you make that choice, you become a servant leader using your time to benefit others.
Servant leadership comes at a cost. I think of those that served our county and paid the ultimate price to ensure you and I remain free. Others give their time, their abilities, or their personal resources to aid others, all of those examples are the things servant leadership entails. Jesus embodied the life of a servant leader, in John 15:13 He says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." The message here is that Jesus ultimately went to the cross and was crucified so that we could receive life eternal as a result of Jesus giving His life as a sacrifice for us. Servant leadership 101 in its creation.
Don't be mistaken you are a leader. Are you a servant leader? Well that one is not for me to decide, but I can tell you that if you aren't serving others through your role in the life you are living your servant leadership quotient is in deficit mode. President John F. Kennedy is famously quoted in saying "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,". This was not a call to sit back and wait on someone to do something, but instead it was a call to servant leadership. I challenge you today to ask yourself, "What can I do for someone else this week that will cost me something that I may never get back, but it will have a direct impact on the lives of those I am serving?" God gave His only Son and in turn Jesus gave His life to an undeserving world. Servant leadership 101, "If serving is beneath you, then leading is beyond you."
Coach Carter
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