Daily Verse
Monday, May 11, 2026
Serving with Humility
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Monday's Reflection
Philippians 2:3 — Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Clarence Jordan had every credential a man could want in the 1930s American South. He had a PhD in New Testament Greek from one of the country's top seminaries. He had invitations to teach at Baptist colleges and to pastor prominent churches. The academic and religious establishment wanted him. He turned them all down and moved to rural Georgia to farm with poor Black sharecroppers at a time when doing so put a target on your back.
In 1942 he co-founded Koinonia Farm — an interracial Christian community in Sumter County, Georgia, at the height of Jim Crow. He paid Black and white workers the same wages. He shared meals across racial lines. He treated every person as equal before God, regardless of what the culture around him demanded. The consequences were severe. The farm was bombed multiple times. Machine gun fire was sprayed into the homes at night. A complete economic boycott cut off all local suppliers. His church excommunicated him. A deacon once threw a Bible at him and told him to stop quoting it. Through it all, Clarence Jordan did not fight back. He kept farming. He kept welcoming people. He called Koinonia "a demonstration plot for the Kingdom" — a small piece of ground where the way of Jesus was practiced instead of just preached.
When he died in 1969 — still working, still writing at his desk — his family buried him in a plain shipping crate in an unmarked grave on the farm, just as he had requested. No monument. No public ceremony. Just a man in the dirt he had spent his life serving. He had given up everything his society told him he should want, in exchange for something his society could not understand. Paul called it esteeming others better than yourself. Clarence Jordan called it the gospel.
Prayer: Lord, give us the courage to put the Kingdom ahead of our reputation, our comfort, and our career. Help us to serve in the places that cost something, not just the ones that look good. Amen.