BEING A SERVANT

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” – Philippians 2:6-7

In 1932, actress Marion Mill married Otto Preminger, and the couple settled in Hollywood, CA. Otto began to dabble in movies, and he became so interested in movies that he gave up his medical practice and went on to become the internationally famed movie director. Marion's beauty, wit, and irresistible charm brought her everything a woman desires. In Europe, New York, and Hollywood, she became a famous international hostess.

But Otto's princess could not handle the fast life of Hollywood. She went into alcohol, drugs, and numerous affairs. Her life and lifestyle became so sordid, even for Hollywood, that Otto Preminger divorced Marion. She tried to take her own life three times, unsuccessfully and finally moved to Vienna.

There at a party, she met another doctor named Albert Schweitzer, the well-known medical doctor, musician, philosopher, theologian, and missionary. Schweitzer was home on leave from his hospital in Lambarene, Africa.

She was so fascinated by Schweitzer that she asked him if she could talk to him alone, and he permitted that. For almost six months, every week, she met with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At the end of that time, he was to return to Africa, and she begged him to let her go with him. Schweitzer surprised everyone by agreeing. Marion, who was born in a palace in Austria, went to a little village in Lambarene, Africa, and spent the rest of her life emptying bedpans and tearing up sheets to make bandages for putrid sores on the poverty-stricken nationals.

Jesus calls each of us to serve others. Today in prayer, praise the Lord for His example of being a servant and give Him thanks for the multiple opportunities we have to serve others.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much . . . it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

God’s Word: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:45