Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. But in service, we are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial.
Self-righteous service:
- comes through human effort.
- is impressed with the big deal.
- requires external rewards; needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort.
- is highly concerned about results.
- picks and chooses whom to serve.
- is affected by moods and whims.
- is temporary.
- is without sensitivity.
- fractures community; centres on the glorification of the individual, puts others in our debt, is destructive and manipulative.
True service:
- comes from a relationship with God; we serve out of whispered promptings and divine urgings.
- finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.
- rests contented in hiddenness.
- is free of the need to calculate results.
- is indiscriminate in its ministry.
- ministers simply and faithfully because there is need.
- is a lifestyle.
- can withhold the service as freely as perform it; can listen with tenderness and patience before acting.
- builds community.
More than any other single way, the grace of humility is worked into our lives through the discipline of service. We feel a new spirit of identification with the 'outcasts' and the 'broken'.
When we choose to SERVE, we are still in charge. We can decide whom we will serve and when we will serve. But when we choose to be a SERVANT, we give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this. If all of our serving is before others, we will be shallow people indeed.
It is an act of submission and service to allow others to serve us. We graciously receive the service rendered, never feeling we must repay it.
