Serve Like You Are Serving a King

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.