Being A Servant

Hermann Hesse

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” — Isaiah 42:1

The Swiss-German novelist Hermann Hesse published a short story in 1932 called “Journey to the East.” In it, a group of men go on a long journey. Throughout their trip, they are accompanied by a servant named Leo. Leo takes care of all the chores — the menial tasks we so often look to avoid. But as he does these chores, there is a distinct sense of joy that fills Leo’s life: he “whistles while he works” and lifts the group’s spirits. The trip is a success until one day Leo disappears. Very quickly, the trip devolves into chaos, and each of the men chooses to give up on the journey. Years afterward, one of the men stumbles into the organization that had sponsored their trip, only to discover that Leo was not only a servant — he was in fact the leader of this excellent organization. The story was so popular that, according to journalist and author David Brooks, it inspired the concept of “servant leadership.” Brooks, in describing this story, quotes another great writer, George Eliot, who famously observed in the last sentence of her classic novel Middlemarch , “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” Of course, the one whom Hesse modeled his story on is also without a tomb — though for a very different reason. When we choose to serve faithfully and without recognition, we point to the ultimate servant leader: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Jesus came as a servant of God to bring us back to Himself. Today in prayer, give thanks to the Lord that by serving others we become more like Him.

“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.” — Martin Luther King

God’s Word: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.” — Matthew 12:18

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2026, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN ISAIAH †