Willing to Wash Feet

"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." (John 13:1)

You may think what follows is His crucifixion because that would seemingly be how He would show us the "full extent of His love," but this verse is actually the first verse of chapter 13 - the part of the story where Jesus washes the disciples feet.

What's amazing is that Jesus's time is coming to a close, and the last thing He wants to do for His disciples is to wash their feet. This passage, to me, so exemplifies how God wants us to live:

Love Him supremely -- love others sacrificially.

The act of washing their feet would have traditionally been something a slave or "house servant" did. But Jesus wanted His disciples to realize a couple of things: 1. He was washing their feet (an act of sacrifice and humility) and 2. He was washing EVERYONE'S feet (EVEN JUDAS - whom He already knew would betray Him). Don't miss that. The very person who betrayed Jesus was receiving this very loving act from Him.

I'm trying to apply this to my own life in thinking how can I show others the full extent of my love? How aware am I of how I can be serving others? Something Brent and I constantly strive to do is to be available. We enjoy the opportunity to serve others and help people. The problem we consistently find ourselves running into is that people don't usually feel comfortable asking. It's very hard to serve others when the world, in general, portrays vulnerability as weakness - which it clearly is not. People, all too often, keep problems or needs to themselves because Satan tells us no will care, people are too busy for us, and we should be able to handle things on our own.

But Satan is a liar. And I intend to prove him wrong.

I want to do more than pray for people. I want to get in there and get my hands dirty washing their feet. I'm just waiting on God to lead ...