The Big Flip | The Right Call S1E3

Most of us, when we fall short of who we want to be, assume we've stopped being faithful. We need more discipline, more effort, more commitment.

Here's the flip. We never stop being faithful. We're wired as servants, always giving ourselves to something. When behavior changes, it's rarely because our servant wiring is broken. It's because a different master stepped up with a better offer: a quicker reward, less demand, more apparent safety, more of our own way.

What a faithful servant looked like

In first-century Rome, the Greek word doulos covered every kind of servitude, from the chained galley slave to the household manager who ran a business for his owner. Either way, they were property. There was no opt-out, and allegiance was expected to be total. A faithful servant worked hard, produced results, told the truth even when the news was bad, and anticipated the master's needs so the master didn't have to get involved. Think of Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler.

The difference for us is that we're voluntary servants. Once we find something worthy, we can't wait to commit.

My college GPA

Growing up, my master was getting into college. I got in. Then for three years I carried about a 2.1, just enough to keep my Navy scholarship, because the master I'd been serving was already satisfied.

The summer before my fourth year, walking down a sidewalk, it hit me: I cannot continue this way. Graduating, and graduating well, became my new master. The next semester my GPA jumped to a 3.5. When I came back from Christmas break, both my academic advisor and my military advisor wanted to talk. I could tell they wondered if I'd started cheating. I hadn't. I'd chosen a new master, and I was all in.

The counterfeit masters

Every master promises a brighter future, like laundry detergent that never claims to get out most of the stains. Money puts us on a treadmill where getting it never satisfies. Status and approval chain us to opinions that change. Autonomy, the "my way" master, isolates us. Power and control breed micromanagers. Comfort, fame and ideology are right behind them. Each one taps our servant design without offering a worthy mission, and when we have nothing left, it goes looking for someone else.

Five tests for a worthy master

1. Does serving it produce good fruit, for others and for me?
2. Does it empower my choice, or do I feel coerced or guilted into it?
3. Do I feel supported and strengthened, or do I spend a lot of time explaining myself?
4. Does it align with my passion and identity?
5. Will it bring peace in the long term, even if it's hard right now, without a lot of mental gymnastics?

As Christians, we know only one Master fits the bill every time. And His mission isn't hidden. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, until the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18–20).

It doesn't promise immediate emotional release. It calls us to keep walking. The easiest way to know the master is to know the mission, because whatever our real master is, its mission keeps moving forward at every opportunity. If what we're doing, and how we're doing it, doesn't advance the Great Commission, we're serving someone else.

This week

• Keep a time log. Set a 30-minute timer and write one line each time it goes off.
• After a week, take 15 minutes, pray for wisdom, review the logs and write down what you discover. Which mission kept moving forward? You may find you're less aligned than you hoped, or more aligned than you give yourself credit for.

A question to sit with

Based on my behavior, not my intentions, who has been my master?

This is Episode 3 of The Right Call: Wisdom Simply Applied.