Being a servant isn’t a concept most people like. They foresee menial tasks that don’t get them anything. Serving someone else means they receive, you give. In a culture that spreads the “it’s all about me” virus like a plague, it’s not something most people want to buy into. What I’ve discovered is that it’s absolutely necessary if you truly love God the way you say you do. God demands we serve him and obey his commands. Yes, he loves us, but his love demands we serve.
Of course, we can serve grudgingly or lovingly, it’s our choice. But I think it grieves God when we feel forced to serve so that we can avoid Hell. God wants us to serve because we choose to do so, because serving others brings so much joy – to everyone involved. Sometimes it doesn’t much look like joy but from the perspective of heaven it will. Imagine all the faces of those you’ve touched just because you took the time to listen to them. It doesn’t seem like much to you but it’s everything to the person who’s being heard, maybe for the first time.
It’s so easy to walk on by and not notice a person in trouble. It’s so easy to not send a card or go to visit someone in the hospital. It’s so easy to think you don’t have to bother because someone else will take care of the situation. What if you were the person being passed by? Maybe your life was in that person’s hand and he just walked on by as if you didn’t even exist. Would your heart break when you realized how little you mattered to anyone else?
Think about those people we generally write off – drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill, those with physical handicaps, prostitutes, unwanted children, the homeless – the list goes on and on. Who decided they were worthless? We did when we passed them by and passed judgment on them. There, but for the grace of God, we could be, but we don’t see that. Instead we tell them to go get a job and take care of their own selves, when the truth is, if they could do that they wouldn’t be where they are in the first place. They did the best they could with what they had when what they had wasn’t enough – they needed Jesus. What they didn’t (and still don’t) need is our condemnation.
How cruel we are to those we think invisible. God sees them. God does care. Maybe he sent you their way on purpose, so that you could give a little light to their dark situation and show them that someone does care. What excuse do you think will be plausible and acceptable to God? Personally, I know I’ve walked on by many times, and when I have to face God for those passings, I’ll have nothing to say. In my mind’s eye I see God’s tears over what I’ve failed to do. There are no excuses acceptable to God.
Knowing I had no excuses for not obeying God was a hard pill to swallow. It was huge. It meant I had to re-think what I was doing. Now, I try not to walk on by. I try to be discerning, watching for God’s movement along my path. I look for ways I can help people I used to think were just throw-aways. A word of thanks or praise goes a long way with new co-workers who are scared stiff they’re going to fail. A pack of gum may not mean much of anything to me but it means the world to a child, a seemingly dirty rag-tag child, whose parents can’t afford to give him any. A small gesture of kindness can change a person’s outlook in an instant. It can be all the difference between life and death – literally.
It was brought home to me how much one person can affect the lives of others when God reminded me recently of how what I’d been through had changed the lives of others. Simply sharing my testimony made it easier for someone to go through chemo and radiation treatments. Sending a card weekly to another person who’d just been through cancer surgery made her day. How much of my time did it take to check in on the people on my prayer list to see how they were doing and let them know someone was praying for them still? I may never know the results of my prayers, or sharing my testimony, or sending someone a card; God does. One thing I know is true – simply being there for others is a gift of joy from the Lord. It stays with you for a long, long, long time.
Once, not too long ago, I would have said, “Let them eat cake and take care of their own problems. I didn’t cause them. God helps those who help themselves.” True, God does help those who help themselves. But using this as an excuse to not help others is faulty thinking. If you think about it long enough you will realize that God places people in particular places to do his will – and maybe his will is that YOU help that person you thought to pass by.
A wise man once told me, “You are who you serve.” At the time I thought he was crazy. What do you mean, who do I serve? I serve a lot of people – myself, my family, my work. That’s all I do is serve! And it’s getting wearisome; I’m tired of always doing for others but not getting anything for myself. Only later did I realize that he was right; who you serve makes all the difference.
I was upset because my family seemed to think I was little more than a bank, from which they took distributions but to which they never gave back. They seemed to believe that because I was single, I didn’t have any bills to pay, so giving to them wouldn’t hurt me at all. In my mind’s eye I was throwing stones in a lake, watching the stones sink, just as I felt like I was sinking. So much going out and nothing coming back in.
Then, by chance, I noticed the ripples in the water caused by the stones I was throwing. Ever so gently God reminded me that there is always cause and effect. When I serve myself, very little happens. When I serve the world, I gain nothing. When I serve others, I have a direct effect on their lives. When I serve God, I can change the world.
It makes a difference how I serve. I can serve willingly, or grudgingly. I can serve selfishly, or unselfishly. I can be a taker, or a giver. I can give with joy, or I can give with regret and anger. I can serve without expecting anything in return, or I can serve with a unwritten contract that demands payback. One thing is certain, if I’m going to serve God, I have to do so under his rules, not mine.
Serving God isn’t all that popular these days. Even churches fall out of step in that regard. They’re often so busy putting together programs that they miss the target God gave them – to save a dying world. Some churches have become little more than social groups, groups that don’t welcome strangers and have an odd protocol for belonging to their group. If you don’t do this, you don’t belong. If you don’t believe this, you don’t belong. If you don’t dress like this, you don’t belong. God accepts everyone. No sin is greater than another. Who are we to decide who belongs and who doesn’t?
Being a servant means that I become small and God becomes great. All the glory and honor and praise and credit goes to God, not to me. That’s hard for some of us to take. We like to be “made over” and praised for our accomplishments. We love to see our names up in neon lights. It makes us feel grand to see a magazine or news article with our names in the byline. Even as I write this I am reminded that without God I am nothing. Only in him am I complete. Suddenly, I don’t need to be recognized. It is enough to know that by the grace of God I have been a comfort to others, inspired others, lifted others up, and brought the presence of God to their lives. He is what they need. He is who I will serve.
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