A Royal Pain

I admit it. I don't get it. (That's as poetic as this post is going to get). What don't I get, you ask? A lot of things, but right now what I don't get is the drooling gaga-ness over The Royal Wedding. Please don't try to help me understand the historical significance or the romance of it. I readily admit that I don't get it because I don't want to get it. This wedding has absolutely zero effect on my life. Now, when I married off my own princess four months ago ... that wedding matters to me (and I am happy for you to see the 400 pictures I have posted on Facebook). In two months I will celebrate twenty-seven years of marriage to the queen of my life ... that wedding matters to me.


I really don't want to take up all my space here writing about weddings. I get weddings. I guess what I don't get is Royalty. I cannot imagine what it would be like. Maybe we all dream of what it would be like. Maybe they all dream of what it would be like to be a regular person. I do know that there are times when I have been a Royal Pain. I suspect you've had them, too. You know what I mean--those times when we have acted like it was all about us. We have talked down to people or, at the very least, we have made them feel as if they really did not matter. They were there only to help us get what we wanted.


Just this morning, I was at a cash register paying for a service that had just been done to my car. The young man operating the register asked how my day was going. "Great," I replied, and then after a pause, "how about yours?" His answer really got me thinking.


"Well, I could tell you, but the truth is that you really don't care about the answer, so I'll just save the time and keep it to myself."


Wow! I wonder how many Royal Pains he has dealt with that made him presuppose that I really didn't care. I'd love to tell you that we sat down for a cup of coffee and a chat and that he was able to unload his burden. The line of customers behind me prevented it. But, I really did care about his answer and his day. I hope my demeanor at least didn't burden him any more. I'm not sure what I could have done differently, but I do want to be intentional about how I come across, especially to those who are making my life better by serving me.


It makes me think of these words from the Bible: "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought ... Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." (Romans 12:3, 10,NIV)


It also makes me think of the ultimate royalty, the King of Kings, who said of himself that he "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28 & Mark 10:45)


We never look more like our King than when we voluntarily serve and honor those who least expect it.


And by the way, the King says that your life really matters to Him.