John 12:26...The word (diakoneo) means to wait on. We get our English equivalent deacon, or servant from the word. The other word (servant) means literally union on the road. So Jesus is saying something like, Join me on the road of serving others.
The world in which we live says, Grab on, hold tightly, squeeze til you get what you want. Jesus teaches the paradox that you can never touch what you grab for…and you cannot keep what you think you’re holding. The moment you think you’ve piled-up the good life for yourself – made your mark – it will come crashing-down around you like the twin towers on 9-11. In wanting to be-served, you lose all.
The most well-known fact about a boomerang is that, once- thrown, it will return to the thrower. The least-remembered reality is that the boomerang is intended to be used as a weapon. It only returns when it misses the target.
You can keep thinking that throwing yourself at life with more effort, more wisdom, more money, more, more, more – will somehow change it all in your favor. But, here you find that everything you’ve thrown has missed the target of new life. What is coming back is slightly more used than when you threw it. The paradox is that in keeping your life, building your life, living your own life, you have wasted all the life that was in you.