Key Bible Verse: "Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26). Bonus Reading: Matthew 20:20-28

Out of the ashes of despair came Harold. He was an 80-year-old who volunteered at a church youth group that Mac had been working with. Harold's up-front brashness would be abrasive if it wasn't leavened with so much compassion. "Do you know what love is?" he asked Mac.

"Sure," said Mac.

"Do you know what agape love is?" he asked Mac.

Mac shrugged.

"Meet me at the coffeehouse tonight," said the Old Man, which is what Mac had come to call him.

The coffeehouse was an outreach ministry of the church. Over a Coke, the Old Man explained to Mac that agape love was sacrificial love—love that expects nothing in return. "But that," he told Mac, "is tough for macho guys like you to experience."

Mac scoffed. He was a winner. He could hit any shot that came over the net, even if it was a hot spinner like this.

"Fine," said the Old Man. "I want you to go up to the next person who walks in that door and tell them God loves them and so do you." Mac almost spit out his Coke. But the Old Man was serious. And Mac's will to win didn't allow retreat.

"Fine," he said. [continued 8/9]

—Bob Welch in A Father for All Seasons

My Response: Have I considered myself too macho to embrace agape love?

Thought to Apply: We mount to heaven mostly on the ruins of our cherished dreams, finding our failures were successes.—AMOS ALCOTT (New England philosopher)

Adapted from A Father for All Seasons (Moody, 1997) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, move me beyond the world's definition of failure and success to the only one that counts—Your definition.

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