Discipline & Rest: Service

Service has looked like many different things to me at different points in my life.  I grew up in a family where serving and caring for others was highly valued.  At a young age I feel like God placed in my heart a desire to serve and take care of others.  In the fourth and fifth grade I spent my lunch recess playing with handicapped children.  My home growing up was a safe place for many of my friends and often became the place to hang out.  From time to time we had different family members living with us and eventually my parents ended up adopting two of my cousins.  I have watched my mom give her life to caring for others.  I did not grow up in a home where Christ was our center or motivation for serving others, so I have watched my mom pour her life into others and find her worth and value in doing so.  I have watched her service to others take away from her service to her immediate family and herself, resulting in a lot of damage and pain. 

 

With that as my backdrop, once I became a Christian my pull to serve and care for others heightened.  Service is one of those broad terms that really can look different in many ways.  I found myself serving on different levels: serving at a summer camp, serving the homeless, serving in childcare, serving people in my home, serving as a social worker, serving as a caretaker for two wonderful elderly women... I only write these things out to show how easy it is to get caught up in something good. 

 

Serving others and caring for others has come natural to me and has been very fulfilling. BUT there has also been a dark side to service.  I have hidden behind it and made it who I am; it has become a comfort and identity for me.  I have found myself poorly serving the ones that matter most to me, my sweet family.  In so many ways I have found myself becoming like my mother.  Many life lessons have come out of serving others, lessons of the heart.  Lessons that have tied me back to the very one who really served us all without any requirement for a return behavior or action.  Jesus gave himself fully, selflessly, he was secure with his father.  Often my security comes from the acceptance of others instead of the acceptance of my heavenly father.  I have found with service and really with any spiritual practice there has to be something I draw from.  If my well is not God, so much of my junk and baggage and need for others becomes tied up in it.  But when I am drawing on God daily, my vision is not so blurred when it comes to serving others and, actually, my view of service is broadened.  Serving can happen in the simplest of ways: wholeheartedly praying for others, sharing food, jumping on the trampoline with my little ones, stopping and listening to someone and truly caring, telling my husband I am proud of him, not busying myself so I can serve well...

 

I will always battle with the balance of serving others and have to make sure I am returning to my source of spiritual nourishment.  It will mean turning to scripture and reminding myself of who I am in Christ and not to look to my service to fulfill me.  I love that God has put a desire in my heart to care for others and I look forward to the many ways it will shape me and grow me.

Richard Foster, in his book, Celebration of Disciplines, says, "When we set out on a consciously chosen course of action that accents the good of others and is, for the most part, a hidden work, a deep change occurs in our spirits."  Our good Father not only desires that we serve for the sake of blessing and loving and caring for others.  He longs to transform our spirits, to make us more like him. 

Perhaps you are feeling drawn to the discipline of service.   Consider engaging the people in your life through one of these types of service (from Celebration of Disciplines):

-the service of hiddenness, doing things unknown by others

-the service of small things, assistance in daily matters

-the service of guarding the reputation of others

-the service of common courtesy, striving for kind interactions

-the service of ungrudging hospitality

-the service of listening intently

-the service of bearing each other's burdens

-the service of bringing someone a word from God

Do you sense God's invitation?  Is someone in your life coming to mind?  He will empower you to serve not in your own strength or from your own resources, but by his Spirit.  He longs to engage your heart, to fill you daily with himself so that you are overflowing with care and compassion for others.  

Written by: Shelly Jones