Blessed are the Servants!

“If I don’t serve I become like a teenage boy with too much time on my hands…” I was having coffee with a good friend last week when he nailed it with the sentence above about the importance of serving others.  He went on to talk about how he has learned that he finds the greatest joy doing deeds for others.  He went on to add, “It can be mopping floors, picking up trash, or having coffee with someone who needs to share their heart and being available to listen.”

With a sense of humor my friend tapped into the very DNA that runs deeply through our veins. We are created in the image of the triune God, who represents perfect and complete love and this God has manifested that love through acts of unconditional sacrifice. From the very beginning of time we have been designed to serve. However, because our first parents, Adam and Eve,  listened to satan’s lie the act of serving others has been distorted.  The false truth of making ourselves god and focussing primarily on  our own desires will result in ultimate satisfaction. Hmm how did that go for Adam and Eve? You and me?

As we enter into this precious season of Advent, many churches will light advent candles each Sunday. The fours candles represent hope, love, joy and peace. All pointing to the greatest act of service ever given to the world-the amazing gift of Jesus coming to earth. From His very conception in a virgin’s womb, to His birth in an animal shelter, and His obedient life culminating at the cross, this SERVICE was to the least and broken. Yes to you and me.

As Jesus stated so clearly in Mark 10:43-45  indeed this was His mission and it is to be the mission of all those who follow Him:

“If you want to be the greatest, then live as one called to serve others. The path to promotion comes by having the heart of a bond-slave who serves everyone. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone, and to give His life as the ransom price for the salvation of many.”

When we desire to live out the mission of Christ through service- His Kingdom begins to invade our hearts with hope, love, joy, and peace as represented in those advent candles.  Serving ignites something deep inside of us, it can’t always be defined or described but it just feels right.

One of our greatest joys as a ministry is to observe what happens when young people travel to Africa and are “ruined” so to speak, by serving the least of these (see Matthew 24:45-51). We call the trips Kingdom Encounters because it is by serving, by giving of themselves-they encounter Jesus and His Kingdom. We have seen so many “ruined” to the kingdom of this world and find the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when serving others.

Having coffee and a enjoying a delicious donut with my friend reminded me of the blessings of serving others. Serving brings hope, love, peace and joy deep into our souls as His Kingdom awakens and flows and grows through loving others by serving. I was challenged  to find ways to serve others this season, perhaps you will be challenged as well.