“Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.” (Galatians 6:2-5)
When we are involved in leading people or helping the disadvantaged, we can lose track of our motives. Controlling people is heady stuff. We feel powerful and to be honest, we can feel indispensable. (Nobody can do it as well as I can,) we might tell ourselves. (What would they do without me?)
Paul reminds us not to fool ourselves. Humility is essential in leading and helping so that we don’t let the power go to our heads. Instead of being distracted by the abilities and positions of others, we need to stop and examine only our own work and our own hearts. The measuring stick, we soon learn, isn’t that we know more than people below us in the organization or that we have more power than others and can tell them what to do. The measuring stick is Christ, who emptied Himself to serve (Philippians 2:7, NASB)
A comparison may be a natural thing everybody does, but people in leadership and in helping ministries need to avoid it at all costs because it feeds either insecurity or pride, not humility and trust in God. Ultimately, each of us will stand before Christ to give an account of our lives. On that day, He won’t ask us if we were more powerful than others. He’ll ask only if we did all we could to help, serve, and give, taking responsibility for our choices, all to fulfill the law of Christ to help others instead of wielding power for our own sake.
“Success is not measured by what you do compared to what others do, it is measured by what you do with the ability God gave you.” ZIG ZIGLAR
