The Humble Servant
By Paul Zukunft, Session Elder
Luke 17:11 “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humbled themselves will be exalted.”
This is such a simple yet profound passage spoken by Christ our Lord, and I expect we all know someone who epitomizes these same attributes of a humble servant. As I reflect upon my 45 years of service in the Coast Guard, where one’s uniform grows more glitter like rings around a tree with each passing year, I confess that I was guilty of growing self-importance and not living up to the words in this passage.
But one particular humble servant, with whom I served, helped me to recalibrate and be a better servant leader. That humble servant is named Corey. He was 23 years-old at the time and a junior petty officer in the Coast Guard (an E-4 for those with military backgrounds).
Corey is an aviation survival technician, and more aptly put, one who jumps out of a perfectly good helicopter to rescue mariners in distress.
Every year the Coast Guard is honored at a gala event at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, which is attended by luminaries far and wide to pay tribute to a select member of the Coast Guard and serves as a fund-raising platform for charitable causes. There are more than 5,000 people in attendance and the audio visual presentation rivals that of our David Chang to loop in tens of thousands virtual attendees.
Corey was the Coast Guard honoree in 2015. The previous year, Corey saved 13 lives during multiple rescue missions. It is a miracle that he not only survived each of those missions, but saved each and every person whose life was in imminent peril. On one rescue case, Corey swam into a sea cave off the north coast of California that was being slammed with 20-foot waves at night and in limited visibility. Corey was able to extract two hypothermic survivors who were hauled up to a helicopter and lived to see another day.
On another rescue, six competitive athletes were attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean when their boat capsized. They were so far offshore that the helicopter could only lift four of the six athletes to avoid running out of fuel before making landfall. So Corey was left behind in the open ocean, treading water with the 2 remaining survivors for the next six hours until the next helicopter arrived on scene at first light in the morning. By that time, these two survivors had made their peace with God, who they had never before acknowledged, while Corey provided words of encouragement and hope and that they would live to have children and grandchildren. Without incident, Corey and the survivors were plucked from the sea.
Fast forward. At the awards banquet, the two survivors provided their testimony, and those two hulking and muscular men were choked with tears and could barely utter the words with such heartfelt emotion, “If not for Corey, we would not be standing here today, and we would not have rededicated our lives to Jesus Christ.” There was not a dry eye in the house.
For the grand finale, Corey is called to the stage. Al Roker was the master of ceremonies and asked Corey to share his experience in detail. And these were Corey’s exact words: “I am a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. It’s what I am trained to do. And I just happened to have duty on those days.” And then without hesitating, he walked off the stage.
Crickets! You could hear a pin drop in the Marriott Marquis until a single applause turned into a crescendo. A member of Congress quipped to me, “No wonder you can’t get the budget you need. Your people are far too humble!”
Well, budget or not, that, my friends, is a humble servant and whose lead I followed from that point on in my military service.
And there is and will never be a more shining example of a humble servant than God incarnate, Jesus Christ; riding into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, and not a princely stallion, while throngs greeted Him shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Let’s follow and praise Him.
Prayer: Lord, I confess my shortcomings in acquiescing to vain glory that feeds upon itself and brings no glory to You and to others. It’s as though I am learning to walk all over again, yet this time in the shoes of a humble servant following the example of the many other humble servants to include people like Corey, and epitomized by You. Amen.
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