Bond Servant

My mind seems to connect with and communicate through extensive analogies or metaphors. The idea that my soul is a bazaar where infinite trivial things are bought and sold is painful. I don't like to think about it, but it is painful because it rings with truth. So many times I think I just wake up in the morning and set up shop for the day. I know what I'm going to need to get through it, how much it will cost, the right words to say to the right people: I have a routine.

But that is not Real Life.

That is not the kind of life my Redeemer King promises.

What would it look like to wake up each morning and not have a preconceived notion about what my day was going to be, but instead say "LORD! You make each day new, unique, and beautiful. What are you going to do today and how will you let me help?"

There is a vibrance to that kind of Real Life: unexpected, uncharted, and underestimated. This is a life of service and it is what I long to lead.

Ever since I was told about the concept of a bond slave or bond servant, I have loved the image of tattooing the master's name by choice. A bond servant is one who has the opportunity to leave the master. They may have completed their work or repaid their debt. However, rather than leave, they choose to remain with their master, who has been kind to them, in a permanent and binding agreement. The bond servant usually tattoos their master's name or symbol to let it be known to all that they have willingly decided to be enslaved their lord.

(I'm kind of a music junkie, so here's one of my favorite songwriter's take on this concept - "My Master" by Christy Nockels)

This is the kind of Life that Christ shows us with his Father and that we are instructed to live. I loved that this week's devotional emphasized the difference between choosing to serve and being a servant.

A bond servant gives up their own will for the will of their master. We are not called simply to serve on occasion, or to do service projects. We are called to have our identity remade by the Maker of all things. When we enter into God's plan for our lives instead of our own and forfeit all control we cling to, we no longer serve as a "project" but as part of our being.

Yes, yes. We are back to the struggle to differentiate between doing and being! I can't think of a day that I haven't struggled through that since day one, week one of my Barney session last summer. It is a recurring theme for me, the chorus of my lifesong.

Be encouraged, dear friends, brothers and sisters, that God works to transform our hearts and minds from the doing outlook to the being outlook. We aren't told just to "do" like Christ, but to BE Christ-like. Doing godly things is a natural byproduct of being.

I'll leave you with this passage from John 15 which pretty much sums up what it looks like to be a servant, as that is something you cannot do apart from God. It all starts and ends with where we are getting our Life, love, energy, motivation, rest, and strength - The Vine.

In One Spirit,

Emma

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. 

¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

PS sorry that was so long! :)