In Order to Be Great, You Have to First Be Humble. In Order to Have Authority, You Must First Serve.

I was no good at Little League baseball. I only played a couple of years in elementary school and never again. As so many people do after their chances to have glory days or go pro have disappeared, about 10 years ago I started playing some recreational softball. In most cases, this has been in the form of church league softball.

Despite my inability to put the skills together in my younger years, I’ve always been blessed with the ability to run fast. I also learned to catch well and even have a nice baseball swing, something my dad taught me how to do in the basement of my childhood home. So, when I started playing softball, I was never particularly bad, but I had a lot less experience than some of the others.

I started out as the catcher on a team in the league’s B division. Over the years I got better and the team did too, moving the team up to the A division and me to play second base and right field. Then our better players started disappearing and I found myself in left field on a C division team for two years. Four years ago, a few players from our team moved the team to a new church. They made me the manager. Now, I play center field among a great group of new guys who won the A division championship this year.

This is just one small example among a group of past, present, and future situations that show that in order to be great you have to first be humble. In order to have authority, you must first serve. So many people spend their lives waiting for authority or fame or appreciation to just be handed to them, hoping the failure or attrition of others will get them what they want. Occasionally this works, but more often than not they find themselves passed over for someone who has made themselves the better choice.

In very few situations, most of them family-oriented, is authority given through existence alone. My opinion at work only carries any weight because I’ve been in my position for six years and gained a wealth of knowledge and experience. The captain of a U.S. nuclear submarine only gets there through years of serving in lesser positions, including a basic training boot camp where he barely has authority over himself. You hear more stories about CEOs that started out sweeping the shop floor than you do about someone getting a degree and appointed to the top. Everywhere you go in life, you find that you have to serve and be humble before you gain authority. It is how you gain knowledge, understanding, and empathy.

Examples of this fill the Bible. Jacob serves Laban for seven years in Genesis 29, in order to have Laban’s daughter Rachael as his wife. Laban deceived him, and he then served another seven years. By keeping his covenant and with Laban and the Lord, however, he would eventually have the nation of Israel named after him and its tribes named after his sons.

Joshua, in chapter 24 verse 15, famously said “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” So, we can see that Joshua continued to have authority and that verse 31 says “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.” During those times Israel thrived and was prosperous, but by the beginning of Judges we find them serving other gods and the Lord can no longer save them.

In reality though, the entire Bible is about the greatest example of someone serving before being given authority, and that example rests in Jesus. He said frequently that the first will be last and the last will be first. From washing the apostles’ feet in John 13 to an entire life spent on Earth gaining knowledge, understanding, and empathy for the struggles, temptations, and sins he would die to erase, Jesus’ life sets the highest example. No one gains authority without first serving; not even Jesus.

Unless you’ve logged a considerable number of hours, you will probably not be flying the plane on your Christmas vacation. When you come back, it is unlikely that your manager will promote you if you don’t excel with the work you already have. God is not likely to give you more money, more responsibility, or more influence if you are not doing his will with what you already have. Serve to gain authority, humble yourself to be great.