Servant of All

“If anyone wishes to rank first, He must remain the last one and the servant of all.” Mark 9:35

Many conveniently forget or ignore this in the pursuit of their goals and dreams. There are many rich and powerful men and women today in government who live as if their goal is to become richer and more powerful still, unmindful of the people they swore to serve. 

I prefer to look for my examples in men and women who have become “small” in the eyes of the world, in order to be “first” with God, in the hopes that something of their virtue might rob off on me. 

Marion Mill is little known, although she wrote an autobiography titled, “All I Want is Everything”. She wrote: “Albert Schweitzer says there are two kinds of people. There are the helpers, and the non-helpers. I thank God that He allowed me to become a helper, and in helping, I found everything."

Marion Mill was born in a royal palace, the daughter of a European diplomat, who ate with spoons of gold. She went to the best schools. When she was married to the famed director Otto Preminger, she led a glamorous life and charmed everyone with her wit and beauty. Living the fast life had its perils and she soon began to drink, take drugs and tried to commit suicide three times. 

One day she met Dr. Schweitzer in Vienna. After talking to him about his work in Lambarene in the Congo, she pleaded with him to take her there. She went, and spent many months every year nursing his patients, cleaning bedpans and the putrid sores of leprosy. 

“One outgrows things,” she said. “The world I knew was suddenly meaningless and without purpose. I am quoting Dr. Schweitzer, who says, ‘Sometimes in our lives our inner light goes out and can be put into flame again only by the encounter of another human being.’ Albert Schweitzer is such a human being. I was so impressed with the idol of my childhood that I became his most faithful follower.”

May we surround ourselves with people who can enliven the flame of our inner light. Perhaps we ourselves can be that person who inspires others to serve God and our fellow man the way Jesus wants us to.