When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch), he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.
As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me”, Governor Herter said. “Do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry”, the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
“Do you know who I am?”, he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?”, the woman responded. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”
That was quite a lesson on authority, wasn’t it? It was a lesson in humility, too. Who is the authority in your life? It is important that we get it right.
Many times, we like to be in charge – or at least think we are. We even try to throw our weight around in order to have things our own way.
The truth is, we are not in charge – there is a higher Authority. And we need to learn to humble ourselves and submit to this Authority while we can. God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). Jesus died on the cross to become our Savior – to pay the price for our sins. Then Jesus rose from the dead three days later. Now, He lives to be our Lord!
Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11). The only question is when. To confess it now means salvation; to wait to confess it on the Day of Judgment will mean condemnation (Matthew 7:21). To confess Christ as Lord – and to have Him as our Savior – means to trust and obey Him: believing in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance to follow Him (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confessing Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being immersed in His name for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38). Confessing Christ as Lord also requires that we continue to follow Him faithfully (Luke 6:46). We need to move along in obedience to the Lord.
Have you submitted your life to the Lord? – David A. Sargent
