One of my pet peeves is the dilution of the term "slavery". I know somebody who calls his condition slavery- even though he is being paid (maybe not much as he liked) and it is not as if he has no rights to his own life (owned). I know another person who abhor working for others, because it is "slavery". I find this correlation bothersome because the complaint of being a slave is used to cover up a consistently discontented spirit or a stubbornly uncooperative spirit, not to mention belittling the sufferings of people who have been abused by real slave drivers. On the one hand, I can understand the frustration of being paid very low or not being valued at work. It does sometimes feel that we are trapped in our circumstances, and our destinies are in the hands of others.

     On the other hand, living with others peacefully requires we give up some "freedoms."  We cannot just go as we please if people depend on us. We cannot just go with our plans if other people will be adversely affected by them. This reality should be learned from childhood. The family should be a place to learn to take responsibility for others and for your surroundings appropriately. Ambition is not healthy when it drives us away from relationships and makes us resent our responsibilities. Parents should not encourage unbridled ambition (be all you can be). 

     So why am I reflecting on this. I would just want to warn us from being resentful about serving others and taking responsibility for things we never thought we had to before. To lay down our egos is the way to peace with ourselves and with others. I have learned the hard way through life that my ambitions keep me from peace. Unfortunately, my focus on my ambitions have destroyed my relationships and my own peace.

     What really helps us in not being resentful about our responsibilities is believing in a God who wants us to serve and who himself is the example of service. Christian tradition holds that God not only commands service (love) but also took on the form of a servant. Then when the servant died in service of people, to make them right, he rose again and sat on the right hand of the sovereign ruler of the universe. This shows that in God's economy, glory comes through service, specifically, the service of the suffering servant. Then, as we join our self to him through faith, we gain glory. We do not have to seek glory because the suffering servant was glorified in our place.