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The Call To Service

Serving Takes Humility

A servant is normally pictured as someone who does a lowly job — the guy who scrubs the dorm bathrooms, or the woman who brings snooty, rich people their food. Servants have humble, lowly positions — not the type of jobs I would normally be jumping to sign up for. At the apartment complex where I live, there is a guy who goes around and picks up the dog droppings from the lawn. Needless to say, it takes a special kind of person and attitude to be able to pull that job off gracefully.

However, as Christians, Jesus has called us to be servants. In fact, Jesus Himself said that it was one of the primary reasons that He came to earth: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45, ESV).

Obviously, since we are to become more and more like Christ, it's our job to be servants as well. Culturally, this thought is completely counterintuitive. We're always trying to climb the corporate ladder so that we have the authority to boss people around and get paid the big bucks for doing so. Some of you are probably thinking, but Jesus says that we're kings and that we get to rule (Revelation 5:10). That's correct, but what, exactly, does it mean to rule?

I think it means that to be a good leader, a good king, a good president, or a good representation of Jesus, we must, first and foremost, be a servant.

Your Purpose is Clear

During my senior year of college I got the opportunity to go on a missions trip to Quito, Ecuador for a week during spring break. I can honestly say that it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. That trip led me to spend three months with the same missionaries leading short-term missions teams from the United States and Canada. I learned a great deal in those three months, including the importance of service.

I once heard an analogy that people are like hammers. They can be used for a lot of different things and be quite useful. A hammer can be used to pry open doors, loosen boards and any number of different handyman kinds of things. However, when you give it a good swing and the hammer goes "Thwack!" against the head of a nail (a metal one — hopefully not the nail on top of your finger), you instantly feel that you have found the hammer's purpose. It feels good and right, and it is effective.

People are the same way. We were created with a divine purpose by a divine Creator, and until we find that purpose, we will never feel complete. We might be useful by the world's standards, we might even be halfway decent at a few things, but we won't be living up to our full potential or purpose.

Finding your purpose in life can be very confusing, time consuming and just plain frustrating. However, you're in luck because I have already done the work for you. I can actually tell each of you exactly what your life purpose is. It's not because I can see into the future but because God has already said so in His word. We don't have to play guessing games. Scripture tells us that we were created for service:

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. (Mark 10:43-44)

And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. (Mark 9:35)

James puts it this way:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)

The list of verses goes on and on, but I think you get the point.

During the three months that I was in Ecuador, I led more than 100 people on a quest to humble themselves and to be servants as Christ called us to be. Some of these kids acted as servants for the first time in their lives. And every single one of them was on the biggest spiritual high of their lives. Most of them cried when they left the people of Ecuador.

The Aftermath of a Missions Trip

But what about when the mission trip is over? What happens then? It's easy to become a servant on a missions trip, but it almost feels like cheating. The majority of people around you are being servants. You know that it's the reason that you came, and most people don't have any disillusionments about their purpose on such a trip. The itinerary looks something like this:

• 8a.m. - 9a.m.: Breakfast
• 9a.m. - bedtime: SERVE

Pretty clear, right? A lot of us get home from a missions trip on a "high," but after about a week or so it begins to fade. We have no idea what it means to serve in our regular lives — in "the real world." We just get sucked right back into the hustle and bustle and selfishness of everyday life. God's call that was once so loud and clear quickly fades, and we're back in that same old rut. The joy we had experienced is nothing more than a distant memory — a good experience that was wonderful but simply "not practical."

Finding Your Own Answers

Chances are, many of us aren't called into a full-time Christian ministry like smuggling Bibles to China, or something of that nature. But we are still called to be servants. So the question remains: How do we take that into our normal lives? Whether it's being a servant at school, at your job or at both — how do we fulfill God's call on our lives?

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What ways have you found to serve in everyday life?

Join the discussion!

I don't have all of the answers for your individual lives, but I encourage you to think about service and what it looks like for you. Read through the Gospels, examine the examples that Jesus gave us, and ask yourself how you can serve like Jesus wherever God has placed you.