...she will not be great now. 

Right now in my life there is someone, maybe there are a few someones, who do not like me. And I don't know why, and it kills me. I mean, it really causes me internal strife. I can't figure out what I have done wrong, I've done everything I can to keep communication lines open and do right by those involved. So lately I've been kind of hiding, hunkering down, feeling unwanted and kind of pitying myself. Then I went to this used book sale and providentially picked up a tiny Gospel of Mark in the FREE box. The verse quoted on the cover was Mark 10:45: ''For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.'' It's a verse I've read countless times before. But maybe it was the strange translation, maybe it was the word ''even'' that seemed to make it an answer to my thoughts, maybe it was just God's perfect timing, anyway the words echoed in my heart. It dawned on me that Jesus Christ came to serve, or minister, at a time when many people didn't want or care to notice the great pains he was taking on their behalf. I've had an easy enough life that I expect people to be nice to me when I am nice to them, and it was really getting me down that it wasn't working that way. Not only was I burning up because someone was treating me unjustly, but I was shocked when others didn't seem to see my point of view. In this passage in Mark, Jesus is describing how the disciples are to be servants, in contrast to the Gentile rulers who lord their authority over others. Not just servants to those who are nice, or respectful, but servants of ALL. It is a fact of life, and even more so in the Christian life I think, that sometimes people will not like you for no reason. Still we must serve, or minister to them. How far do we take this? Well, our master is Jesus Christ, and he bore the scorn of the whole world, do we think ourselves greater than he?