Serve and Follow
Spiritual staff-in-training
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If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
John 12:26 (NET)
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I got to thinking about waiters-in-training.
When a new waiter joins a restaurant, they don’t just throw them into the work and hope for the best. Nope. They train them.
The new staffer acts as a sort of shadow to the veteran.
Following them around the restaurant, watching everything they do, learning from their experience, and then getting a safe place to practice knowing that when they make a mistake the veteran is there to fix it.
Servants of Jesus ought to shadow Him too.
To echo the metaphor, we could spend time learning what He has to teach, watching how He did ministry, and following His example.
And when we make a mistake, He’s there to fix it.
The cool part?
We get a piece of the reward.
I know God does almost all the work, yet He still invites us to contribute as much as we can.
And then He generously gives a piece of the eternal reward.
This is especially where God becomes a much better example than I would be. When I used to work at a pizza place I hated training any new hires (I didn’t like them slowing me down or the time it took to get them up to speed).
And I didn’t even have to split tips with them!
I’m sure I would have resented that too.
Clearly, I have some more work to do. I’m glad that God is continuing to work on me.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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