A noncommissioned officer was directing the repairs of a military building during the American Revolution. He was barking orders to the soldiers under his command, trying to get them to raise a heavy wooden beam.
As the men struggled in vain to lift the beam into place, a man who was passing by stopped to ask the one in charge why he wasn't helping the men. With all the pomp of an emperor, the soldier responded, "Sir, I am a corporal!"
"You are, are you?" replied the passerby, "I was not aware of that." Then, taking off his hat and bowing, he said, "I ask your pardon, Corporal." Then the stranger walked over and strained with the soldiers to lift the heavy beam. After the job was finished, he turned and said, "Mr. Corporal, when you have another such job, and have not enough men, send for your Commander in Chief, and I will come and help you a second time." The corporal was thunderstruck. The person speaking to him was General Washington!
God measures greatness by service. The Lord Jesus has set an example, for though He was God and worthy of all honor, He "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).
To be great in God's sight, we must serve! — Henry G. Bosch
Go, labor on; spend, and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father's will;
It is the way the Master went,
Should not the servant tread it still? —Bonar
True greatness is not attained by giving orders, but by serving.