Phil. 2:5-8 (NIV)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
One of my heroes is Brian Blessed of Z-Cars, Flash Gordon and Peppa Pig (yes, really) fame. It’s not because of his acting, opera singing or generally raucous nature, but because of a story from his mountain climbing experts (yes, he’s done it all). He’s tried to scale Everest without oxygen three times. Once he almost reached the summit, just a few hundred feet left to go, when he came across another climber who was stranded and seriously ill. What to do? Press on and pretend not to have seen anything? Make it to the top, achieve his lifetime’s ambition and return and hope he was still alive? Or give up on his dream in order to take this stranger to safety? He decided on the latter and probably will never get another try at reaching the top. This journey and attitude reminds me of another, that of Jesus who gave up all the comforts and power of heaven to descend to us and take on our flesh, becoming our servant, so that we could be rescued and brought into a relationship with the Almighty, his Father, now our Father.
Spirit, help me to nurture this same attitude.
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