Would You Eat Dirt?

Yesterday I saw a movie (adapted from the book with the same title) that really spoke to me on many different levels. It's called "The Kite Runner."Yes, it has been out for about a year, but hey, I guess I don't get out much. The trailer for it is below.



I was touched on a lot of different levels but one that jumped out to me is in the area of servanthood. In America, we don't really know what that looks like. Well, at least I don't - not in its fullness anyway.

For example, here is a quote from the book, taken from one of my favorite scenes in the movie:

He (Hassan) turned to me (Amir). A few sweat beads rolled from his bald scalp. "Would I ever lie to you, Amir agha?" Suddenly I decided to toy with him a little, "I don't know. Would you?" "I'd sooner eat dirt," he said with a look of indignation. "Really? You'd do that?" He threw me a puzzled look. "Do what?" "Eat dirt if I told you to," I said. ... "If you asked, I would," he finally said, looking right at me. To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say. "But I wonder," he added. "Would you ever ask me to do such a thing, Amir agha?"

Being a servant means doing whatever your master tells you to do, even if it means doing something you don't want to do. Or should I say, rather, ESPECIALLY if it's something you don't want to do.

But isn't that how we are to relate to our God? Being his servant means doing whatever he tells you whenever he tells you to do it. But the cool thing about God is that even if he did tell us to do something equivalent to the level of eating dirt, it wouldn't be to fulfill some sort of cruel, sadistic fantasy - he would use it for our good as well as to accomplish his plan; his good, perfect, and pleasing plan.

True servanthood comes not on our terms, but on the terms of our Master. How far would you go to obey all that God commands of you?