This is the post I keep sitting down to write... I just haven't managed to actually write it yet. Mostly because I just have a lot of questions, and I don't like to not know the answers. I know we are called to serve our neighbors. What higher call could we have than to glorify Him through our service to others? We discussed the story of the Good Samaritan with the youth at church a few weeks ago, and one thing that I noticed as I read the passage was that the rich man asks Jesus who his neighbor is. This is actually the question that leads Jesus to tell the story. The verse in Luke says, "But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" (That was Luke 10:29, for the record.) He wanted to justify himself... as in, he wanted to make sure he didn't have to go out of his way to love his neighbor? He wanted to make sure that the things he was already doing would suffice?
Here we are, generations later, and none the wiser. We're still asking that same question: who are our neighbors? We know the Bible says we're supposed to love and serve them... but oh, we so don't want to drive all the way to "that" part of town. We don't want to "enable" them. Well, we're clearly not doing what we're supposed to do. And we're not asking who our neighbors are for the right reasons. We don't really want to identify them. We just want to make sure that the people we're comfortable serving do, in fact, qualify as neighbors.
I don't think that there's a wrong way to serve the Lord, as long as you are doing it for His glory. I know people who do amazing things in the name of our Savior. I have a friend who, for the past two years, has organized an entire Christmas--food, presents, necessities--for a single mother with nine kids. And I know she doesn't do this for her own glory. In fact, she will be embarrassed to read this. I know others who truly have a heart for service in third-world countries, and still others who have a gift for serving children. And there are others who have artistic gifts that they give back to God. I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" group of folks to love and serve. They are all our neighbors.
There are a few things about service that I think we are missing. First, I think we have a tendency to find something we are comfortable doing and then just sticking with that one thing. I say "we" for all of this because I know I am included in this group. Think about it... you broke out of your box one time, tried some new mission trip or service opportunity; you got something out of it and discovered that spending a week living in a non-air-conditioned cabin with 15 other people wasn't so bad, so you just keep doing it again and again. That was pretty much the extent of my missions experiences in high school. But... doesn't this get stale after a while? Is God calling us to keep breaking out of that box and finding new neighbors to serve? This is hard for me, because I know those original neighbors, the ones from that first trip, still need our help. However, are we missing additional opportunities to serve because we're becoming too set in our ways? There is a tendency for these missions to turn into traditions or rituals, and that's a slippery slope. At some point, we become slaves to the ritual itself, and we forget that our task first and foremost is to serve God. That mission trip we love to go on becomes all about the memories--"I remember that one year when we sneaked out of our beds in the middle of the night and duct taped so-and-so to his bed" (I did not actually do this)--and not enough about God. Even if the memories are actually God-related, like singing beloved songs or experiencing a beautiful outdoor worship service on a night thick with fog (I did do this) can we experience spiritual growth if we just keep trying to relive the same moments over and over? How will our relationship with God suffer if we lose that desire to move forward and grow in our faith? I just think that taking a leap of faith--stepping out of our comfort zones and trusting God--is more likely to result in a closer relationship with God than just sticking to what we know and what makes us feel safe. There's nothing wrong with remembering that worship service and how I felt during it; however, trying to recreate it would surely be a letdown, and much less fulfilling than experiencing something new. It's kind of like a liturgy at times: after you say it over and over and over, you sort of stop paying attention to the words. Once it's memorized, your mind is free to think about other things (like who you can duct tape to his or her bed).
Second, we love to go on mission trips because we desire to "get something out of it." While I think it's amazing the way that serving others brings us closer to God, we must remember that we are there to do His work--to be His hands and feet. That is the most important thing. Of course, if you have that mindset and you are truly serving others so that you can serve the Lord, you will get something out of it. But if you go around looking for "God moments" and trying to figure out how being on the trip will benefit you, then you're just not there for the right reasons. Matthew 20:28 says, "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." I think that is pretty clear, even out of context: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God himself, came to earth to serve others.
I struggle with loving and serving my neighbors. I wish I were better at it. I want to be more willing to get out of my box and really, truly, with my whole heart, serve God. The reason I started this blog was to keep myself accountable when it comes to journaling and even just sitting and processing my thoughts. I write about the things that I have trouble with; I'm not trying to point fingers at others. I take comfort in knowing that there are others on the journey with me who may have the same struggles. They might even be the two people who read my blog, which would be so handy! But I want it to be known that I don't think I'm right all the time or that I even have good answers. I'm just a humble servant trying to live my life with a joyful heart and with the intention of glorifying God in all that I do.
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