Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / Lead to Serve | Episode #377

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Lead to Serve | Episode #377 · Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess

• 0:21
  Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count.
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  I'm your host, Doctor Gloria. Gloria Burgess, international leadership expert and
• 0:36
  trusted advisor. Welcome to Legacy Living, Make your Life Count. I am
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  so delighted that you joined me today. I want to give a big thank
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  you to those of you who are listening, and here's a great big shout
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  out to all of you listening around the world. I'm delighted and so grateful
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  that you tuned in. I sure hope you're enjoying a fabulous day today and
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  that you're having a fantastic week, because you know what, in the grand
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  song of the universe, life is very very short. It's short, sweet
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  and very precious. So I hope you're making a difference in your own life
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  because when you do, you also make a difference in somebody else's life.
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  Now, a lot of folks want to make their life count for something,
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  and they ask me, doctor Gloria, how do you do that? Well,
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  it's very simple, very simple. Here's how I do it. I
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  make my life count as a daughter, as a wife, mom, sister,
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  and in my professional life as a leadership expert, as a speaker,
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  coach, professor, as a mentor. I make my life count by being
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  on purpose, by living, learning and serving every single day three sixty five,
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  twenty four seven. See it's pretty simple, right, You can do
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  it too. You can make your life count day by day, step by
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  step, moment by moment, every single day. Three sixty five, twenty
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  four seven. That's what legacy living, Make your Life count is all about.
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  You can learn more about legacy living make your life count by visiting the
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  Gloria Burgess website. That's right, the Gloria Burgess website, or you can
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  visit me on Facebook dot com at doctor Gloria Burgess pH D. Okay,
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  all right, well today I have a very special show for you. Today's
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  podcast is all about serving. Specifically, I will focus on celebrating on lifting
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  up service because you know what everybody can serve. Now, if you are
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  a regular listener to this podcast, you know that serving and being of service
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  is one of the great ideas we talk about here, not just once in
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  a while, but every single podcast. That's really what legacy living is really
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  all about. Right, It's making a difference in your own life and making
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  your life count. In other words, serving others, making your life count
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  for others. Legacy Living is all about living, loving, and serving every
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  single day. You've heard me say it before, we do it three sixty
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  five, twenty four seven. And you know what. That's exactly how Reverend
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  doctor Martin Luther King Junior lived his life, living, loving, and serving.
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  Now doctor King served three sixty five twenty four seven. How did he
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  do that even while he was asleep? Listen up today. I want to
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  shine the light on serving. Shine the light on serving by looking through the
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  lens of what doctor King calls the drum major instinct. I love that,
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  the drum major instinct. Before we dive into the podcast, I want to
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  take a moment to welcome you. If you're just joining us, I'm your
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  host, Doctor Gloria, and this is Legacy Living. Make your life count.
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  I'd like to extend a special welcome to those of you who are joining
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  my podcast or if you're joining Talk Network Radio for the very first time.
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  I'm so excited to have you listening in today, and I'm deeply honored that
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  you've allowed me to be part of your day so you can be inspired by
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  ideas and resources to make your life count. You are in for a very
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  special treat. As I mentioned earlier, today's episode is all about serving.
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  You don't want to miss a single word of this podcast. So grab your
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  earbuds or find yourself a comfortable chair, grab yourself a nice cool glass of
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  water or a cup of tea or coffee. We are going to have a
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  great time. Now again, we're going to shine the light on serving of
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  being of service by looking through the lens of what Doctor King calls the drum
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  major instinct. In fact, Doctor King delivered a sermon called the drum major
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  instinct. Now some of you may know that he delivered this important sermon towards
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  the very end of his life, and this sermon is all about That's right,
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  you guessed it. It's all about serving. Now, what does serving
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  and being a drum major have in common. That's a great question, isn't
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  it. Well, let's look at what it means and what it takes to
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  be a drum major. Have any of you ever seen a marching band.
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  Well, one of the two leaders of the marching band is the drum major.
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  If you've ever seen a pipe band or a drum and bugle corps,
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  the leader of these groups is also called a drum major. Now I want
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  you to picture this. The drum major is usually positioned at the very head,
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  at the very front of the marching band, or at the front or
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  the head of the drum and bugle corps. Now, maybe some of you
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  have been part of a marching band or a pipe band, or perhaps you've
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  been a musician as a member of a drum and bugle corps. I certainly
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  have. I remember when I was in my high school marching band, I
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  played the saxophone. And I also remember we had these wonderful uniforms. Our
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  school colors were green and gold, and our uniforms were this beautiful dark green
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  with gold corded trim. On the shoulders, we had wonderful white helmets that
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  we wore that set up on top of our head very high, right,
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  so you felt very tall and regal. And on top of that that helmet
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  was a beautiful feather in green and gold. And on the bottom of our
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  uniform we wore white spats on top of our black shoes. And to top
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  it off, we wore those shimmery gold overlays kind of like a long vest
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  that we wore outside of our jacket. We looked sharp. I'm gonna say
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  snazzy. We looked so so wonderful. We thought we looked actually fantastic.
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  And you know what we did, now, the drum major, the drum
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  major always looked very snazzy too. In fact, the drum major's outfit was
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  even snazzier than the band members. Right, it was the same green and
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  gold, but the gold corded trim was much more ornate and thicker. Right,
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  it had more ribbon, a bigger braid in the cord, and more
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  core words actually draped down over the shoulders. I remember that the drum major
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  also had a shorter jacket than we wore as members of the marching band.
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  The drum major's jacket was white so that we could easily see him or her
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  right, And instead of black shoes, the drum major wore black boots.
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  Yeah, that's right, black boots, boots that were knee high and very
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  very impressive looking. Now, the drum major also carried a baton, the
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  kind of baton that you see gymnasts use, the kind that you whirl around,
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  right, And the drum major wore a whistle around the neck. Now,
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  why the baton and the whistle, Well, the drum major was the
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  person who provided the commands to the band. The drum major was also the
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  person responsible for leading the band while we were marching. The drum major set
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  the rhythm, the tempo for our march right, and the tempo for the
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  music we played. The drum major would use the whistle to signal the tempo.
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  I remember, tweet tweet, tweet, tweet right, and he or
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  she held the baton way up high, right, pumping, pumping his or
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  her arm to amplify the tweeting, to amplify that whistle. The drum major
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  of that marching band was a servant leader of the entire ensemble, the entire
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  I don't know. We had multiple, multiple ranks of marchers, of musicians
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  and our marching band. So all that ornate clothing and the baton held high,
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  and the whistle tweets, all of that served a purpose, a very
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  specific purpose. The drum major served so that all could see, so that
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  all were touched, so that all were moved quite literally in the same direction.
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  So Doctor King's sermon about the drum major instinct is all about serving just
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  like that drum major of the marching band. Doctor King's sermon is all about
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  being of service, all about being a servant leader. As I listened to
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  Doctor King delivered that sermon, there were so many many lessons in it that
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  I wanted to share with you. Then I realized I could probably do a
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  whole year's worth of episodes, a whole year's worth of podcasts on that one
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  sermon alone. Imagine that, right, But I knew I needed to focus
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  on just one thing for this podcast, and again, that is serving.
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  In his sermon, Doctor King talks about the drum major instinct, and he
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  says that you know what, we all have it, right. We don't
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  need those fancy green uniforms. We don't need that gold overlay or that white
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  hat with the green and gold feathers of the baton. We all have it.
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  Whoever we are, wherever we are. This instinct shows up in our
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  desire to be recognized, our desire to have someone call our name, so
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  to speak. This is our desire for importance or significance. In scripture,
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  in the Gospel of Matthew, the Disciples, James and John make a specific
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  request of the Mass. Like many Hebrews before them, James and John dreamed
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  of a coming king of Israel. This coming king would set Jerusalem free.
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  This coming king would establish his kingdom on Mount Zion. This coming king would
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  rule in righteousness. Indeed, this king would rule the world. James and
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  John actually thought of Jesus as this kind of king. And James and John
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  said to Jesus, now, when you establish your kingdom, let one of
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  us sit on the right hand and the other on the left hand of your
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  throne. We are told that the other disciples were upset. They became angry
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  with James and John. Now why did the disciples get mad? Because just
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  like James and John, they also wanted to be up close and personal with
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  King Jesus. Like James and John, they also wanted to sit at the
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  right and left hand. Like James and John, they wanted to have a
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  seat right next to the throne of the king. Can I just tell you
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  something. All of us are like those disciples. We all want attention.
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  We all want to be first, We all want to be the favorite.
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  That desire for attention, that desire to be first, that desire to be
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  important, to be recognized, that desire to lead the that desire is what
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  doctor King refers to as the drum major instinct. In his sermon, doctor
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  King also cautions us. That's right, he warns us. He cautions us.
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  He actually beckons us to harness this instinct. He pleads with us to
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  harness, to put the halt on this instinct. Why because if we don't
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  harness the instinct to be noticed, to be recognized, to get attention,
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  to feel important. If you don't harness this instinct, it is very easy
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  to fall into the trap of pushing others down in order to lift ourselves up,
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  or to fall into the trap of feeling important because you belong right to
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  this exclusive club or that exclusive club, or that exclusive church, or go
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  to that exclusive school, or you belong to that exclusive golf club or women's
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  group or men's group or neighborhood, or the kind of car you drive or
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  you wear that particular brand of clothing or shoes. Right you could only carry
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  that particular kind of briefcase, or have that particular kind of computer or whatever.
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  You know what I'm talking about, don't you. I mean, the
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  list goes on and on and on, doesn't it. In this sermon,
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  Doctor King reminds us that we all, we all have a common father,
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  that all women are sisters, and all men are brothers because we all have
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  a common father. So he shows that the desire, the drive, the
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  motive to serve can actually become distorted, right. We can misuse it.
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  We can misuse our desire to serve ourselves instead of serving others. Doctor King
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  also reminds us that when we nurture this instinct, that it can be an
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  incredibly rich resource, a very powerful resource that you can use, that I
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  can use, that all of us can tap into, tap into our greatness.
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  In that sermon, doctor King reminds us that Jesus confronts his disciples James
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  and John, on their instinct to be first, on their desire to be
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  recognized, their desire to be on the right hand and left hand. We
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  know, we know that what Jesus did was radical. It was positively radical.
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  Like he does so many times, Jesus turned things upside down. Doctor
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  King says that what Jesus did was all together different. He that is,
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  Jesus said, in substance, Oh, I see, you want to be
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  first, You want to be great, you want to be important, to
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  be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be
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  my disciple, you must be. But he reordered priorities. And he said,
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  yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you
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  use it right. Yes, it's a good instinct if you don't distort it
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  and pervert it. Don't give up. Keep feeling the need for being important,
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  keep feeling the need for being first. But but Jesus said, I
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  want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in
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  moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. This is what
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  I want you to do. And so my favorite book tells us that Jesus
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  was radical because he spoke to his beloved disciples. Doctor King says that Jesus
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  transformed the situation by giving a new definition of greatness. And you know how
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  he said it. Here's what he said. Now, brethren, I can't
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  give you greatness, and really I can't make you first. This is what
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  Jesus said to James and John. You must earn it. True greatness comes
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  not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and the left
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  are not mine to give. They belong to those who are prepared. And
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  so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be
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  important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized wonderful, if you want
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  to be great, wonderful, but recognize that he who is greatest among you
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  shall be your servant. That's a whole new definition of greatness. And the
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  thing I like about it. By giving that definition of greatness, it means
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  that everybody, everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don't have
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  to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject
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  and verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle
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  to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.
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  You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics and physics. To serve,
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  you only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
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  And you, that's right, you and me, and you can be
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  that servant. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated
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  by love, and you can be that servant. So now you know the
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  secret, the secret to serving and serving well. You don't serve to get
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  attention or to be recognized or to be first. Oh No, you serve
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  because that's what being in his purpose for your life is all about beyond purpose
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  in His purpose for your life. That's how I strive to live my life
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  as a daughter of the Most High. That's how I want to live my
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  life. Do I get it right all the time? No way. Just
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  ask my husband or my daughter or my sisters. All right. But one
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  of the reasons I just love doing this podcast is that it helps me remember
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  who I am and whose I am. It helps me remember who and what
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  is important. It helps me remember that if you want to transform your relationships
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  or your family, or your friendships, or your team at work, or
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  your organization or your community, guess what you first have to transform you?
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  You have to transform yourself, just as we learn today. One of the
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  best ways to do that is by serving. I want you to ask yourself
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  this question, how am I serving today? Am I serving myself? Or
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  am I serving others? Am I truly serving others? All right? We
• 24:25
  are here for just a few more minutes, so I want to remind you
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  if you missed last week's podcast or any part of this week's, you can
• 24:34
  download the recording and listen to it at your convenience. You can even listen
• 24:41
  to it on the go. Check it out on iTunes, Audible, Alexa,
• 24:47
  SoundCloud, iHeart, tune in, Spreaker, dot Com, Talk Network
• 24:52
  Radio, and so many other places. Or you can listen live each week
• 25:00
  or download the show to listen later. You can do that right here at
• 25:04
  www dot talknetwork Radio dot com Forward Slash Hosts, Forward Slash Legacy Living.
• 25:15
  That's Talknetwork Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts Forward Slash Legacy Living. You
• 25:23
  can also find me on the TEDx site and listen to one of my ted
• 25:27
  talks. Just type in my name to find me there. Once again,
• 25:33
  I want to thank you for joining me for today's episode. I'm your host,
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  doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, and this is Legacy Living. Make your Life
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  Count. Please join me again next time right here for another podcast, another
• 25:53
  show of Legacy Living. Make your life count. Don't just count the days
• 26:02
  in your life. Make the days in your life count. That's what Legacy
• 26:08
  Living is all about. Have a fantastic day, and remember, make the
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  days in your life count. God bless you. That's our show today.
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  I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess. I hope you'll join me again
• 26:41
  next time. Until then, don't just count the days in your life.
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  Make the days in your life count. That's what legacy living is all about.
• 26:53
  Here's to you have a fantastic day and be sure to make it a
• 26:59
  Yes kind of the day. Remember to celebrate the music of your life.
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  Make the days in your life count