No task beneath you
The risen Christ makes breakfast
After the resurrection — vindicated, glorified, with all authority in heaven and earth — Jesus does something almost startling in its smallness. He builds a charcoal fire on the beach, cooks fish and bread, and calls his tired, discouraged disciples: come and have breakfast.
The risen Lord of the universe, doing the humble work of making breakfast for his friends. If there were ever a person entitled to be served rather than serve, it was the resurrected Christ. And he cooked. No task that serves others is beneath a leader who follows him.
“Come and have breakfast.”
— The risen Jesus, to the disciples — John 21:12 (WEB)
No task that serves others is beneath a true leader. Like the risen Christ cooking breakfast, be willing to do the small, unnoticed, menial service.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.”
The risen Christ, entitled to all honor, cooked breakfast for tired friends. A leader formed here lets no task feel beneath him when it serves others. He finds his status no excuse to refuse humble work. The inner work is a willingness to do the menial, secure enough not to need to be served.
Take on humble, unnoticed tasks that serve your people, especially as you rise. Refuse the sense that menial work is beneath your position. Let your team see you do the small things, which teaches more than any speech. Treat status as freedom to serve, not exemption from it.
As leaders rise, menial tasks come to feel beneath them, and they quietly stop serving in small ways. The blind spot is letting status exempt you from the humble service Christ himself did not refuse.
Name one task that has started to feel beneath you. This week, do it yourself, quietly and well, as the risen Christ made breakfast for his friends.
As leaders rise, certain tasks come to feel beneath them — the menial, the unnoticed, the cleanup. The risen Christ, with every reason to be served, made breakfast on a beach. Status, in the kingdom, is no excuse for refusing humble service.
What tasks have started to feel beneath you — and what would it say to your team if, like the risen Christ, you simply did them?