It's been a common theme in my blog posts, hasn't it, this idea of serving? I can't explain why except that it has been one of the things that God has been reminding me of over and over again so far this summer...and He did so again just last week in a pretty special way.
A group of us from my church recently served in New York City at a place called "The Bowery" on Bowery Street--right next to Chinatown, not far from Little Italy, and within sight of the Empire State Building. But it's a homeless shelter and soup kitchen. Every day they serve three free meals to the homeless and poor who attend chapel services.
So, in walks our little group (if 20 people is a "little group") to work in The Bowery: to clean, to cook, to serve, and to talk to people we would call "homeless." Some of them live in The Bowery, working through a year-long rehabilitation program in order to emerge with a means of sustaining themselves, while others come in just for chapel services and meals. Our group got to serve the meals; I was fortunate enough to be able to serve breakfast on the very first day of our stay. So, I took my place behind the hard-boiled eggs, pulled on my plastic gloves, and waited for the first few partakers. While I waited, though, I happened to look around--normal behavior for a first day, I think. Well, what to my wandering eyes should appear but a sign, right above the dining hall and facing us servers, that read "Serve like you are serving a King."
I found the same thing posted in the kitchen right above the oven, and someone had written it on one of the bunks in the women volunteers' dorm: "Serve like you are serving a King." I loved it. And, from then on, I tried to remind myself of The Bowery's mantra in everything I did. When I mopped, I tried to mop as if in a palace; when I wiped pews, I tried to do so as if a king would sit in them; when I helped organize a pantry, I did so as if a king would use it; and when I greeted each person in the serving line, I tried to greet each one as if he (or she) were a king (or queen). I didn't always succeed--but I would never have succeeded if I had never tried, you know what I'm saying?
So, here's a little bit of practical advice for those of us who sometimes have trouble implementing the command of Ephesians 6:7-8: make a little sign, or screensaver, or desktop, or whatever else will best remind you, that says "Serve like you are serving a King." See if that doesn't help.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Less Self
I just experienced perhaps the most challenging week of my life. It was awesome.
Has anyone heard of Crossroads Summer Camp? Well, if you haven't, let me school you: it's a week-long youth camp on the campus of Gardner-Webb University that includes a workshop and activities on campus during the day and a wicked-awesome worship service at night.
I went as a chaperone this year, for the first time (officially) ever! Which made me nervous. Because, though I am CPR and First-Aid certified, I was pretty sure that wasn't all that it took to be a youth helper.
Turns out I was right. I had to practice being selfless, too, and the lesson couldn't have come at a better time!
To be selfless means that you don't concern yourself with what you want to do (or "your own interests," as the Bible puts it), but consider, instead, what would be best for those around you. This may have meant, for me, going to activities with my girls that overlapped with the activity that I would most have enjoyed. Or, maybe it meant that I needed to give someone else the last dessert on the dessert bar and settle for something less exciting. And, the biggest challenge for me: instead of talking only about myself and always guiding the conversation into a direction that I wanted to go into, I've discovered that sometimes selflessness means asking genuine questions about my conversation partner, listening to their answers, and letting them say more than I do. It's not all about me.
If that were all I had to learn, though, the lesson would have been easy. But it wasn't; the best is yet to come! Selflessness is not only in our actions, but in our motivations as well. If I go to an activity for the sake of my girls in order to show off my deep spirituality or to brag about how I'd far rather be somewhere else--well, what's the point of that? To show off, of course, so that people will notice me and my "selfless" action. The focus, in other words, becomes myself again. If I surrender the dessert I really wanted so that some handsome, godly guy will notice and think that I'm a selfless, godly girl, then I've ruined the effect and brought the focus to myself again and taken it away from God, and my earthly reward (the attention I've received for it) is the only reward I can expect for it. Do we get the picture? We can even make our "selfless" activities selfish if we're doing them for our own benefit or praise. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31?
Finally, you may wonder why we would ever want to be selfless anyway, if not so that others will notice. There are a few answers:
1. When we became Christians, we were made completely new so that the old way of looking at things (i.e. "It's all about me") was transformed by Christ
2. As Christians, we're not living for ourselves, but for the glory of God (as 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us)
3. Jesus gave the ultimate example of selflessness when He surrendered His very life so that we could live through Him.
Remember that it's not about us and what we can do, because we are nothing without Christ; it's all about God, and only He deserves praise, honor, or glory. Don't try to take what is rightfully His.
Has anyone heard of Crossroads Summer Camp? Well, if you haven't, let me school you: it's a week-long youth camp on the campus of Gardner-Webb University that includes a workshop and activities on campus during the day and a wicked-awesome worship service at night.
I went as a chaperone this year, for the first time (officially) ever! Which made me nervous. Because, though I am CPR and First-Aid certified, I was pretty sure that wasn't all that it took to be a youth helper.
Turns out I was right. I had to practice being selfless, too, and the lesson couldn't have come at a better time!
To be selfless means that you don't concern yourself with what you want to do (or "your own interests," as the Bible puts it), but consider, instead, what would be best for those around you. This may have meant, for me, going to activities with my girls that overlapped with the activity that I would most have enjoyed. Or, maybe it meant that I needed to give someone else the last dessert on the dessert bar and settle for something less exciting. And, the biggest challenge for me: instead of talking only about myself and always guiding the conversation into a direction that I wanted to go into, I've discovered that sometimes selflessness means asking genuine questions about my conversation partner, listening to their answers, and letting them say more than I do. It's not all about me.
If that were all I had to learn, though, the lesson would have been easy. But it wasn't; the best is yet to come! Selflessness is not only in our actions, but in our motivations as well. If I go to an activity for the sake of my girls in order to show off my deep spirituality or to brag about how I'd far rather be somewhere else--well, what's the point of that? To show off, of course, so that people will notice me and my "selfless" action. The focus, in other words, becomes myself again. If I surrender the dessert I really wanted so that some handsome, godly guy will notice and think that I'm a selfless, godly girl, then I've ruined the effect and brought the focus to myself again and taken it away from God, and my earthly reward (the attention I've received for it) is the only reward I can expect for it. Do we get the picture? We can even make our "selfless" activities selfish if we're doing them for our own benefit or praise. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31?
Finally, you may wonder why we would ever want to be selfless anyway, if not so that others will notice. There are a few answers:
1. When we became Christians, we were made completely new so that the old way of looking at things (i.e. "It's all about me") was transformed by Christ
2. As Christians, we're not living for ourselves, but for the glory of God (as 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us)
3. Jesus gave the ultimate example of selflessness when He surrendered His very life so that we could live through Him.
Remember that it's not about us and what we can do, because we are nothing without Christ; it's all about God, and only He deserves praise, honor, or glory. Don't try to take what is rightfully His.
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