Serve Until It Hurts

Sometimes my approach to spiritual discipline and being prepared for the calling God has for me can be pretty lacklustre. At times my spiritual discipline has had all the enthusiasm of doing a couple of sit ups at the gym and calling that enough of a work out for my abs. Talking about commitment to goals, Arnold Schwarzenegger recounted watching Muhammad Ali doing sit ups in the gym, someone asked him how many sit ups he did. Ali responded “I don’t know, I don’t start counting until it hurts”. Wouldn’t it be great if we could muster the same enthusiasm in our spiritual disciplines? Going beyond our natural giftings and purposefully doing that which does not come naturally to us. 
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​One of the disciplines that doesn’t come naturally to many of us is serving others. In the gospel of Mark, chapter 10, we read the disciples had a pretty tense moment. James and John asked Jesus if they could sit at his right and left side when he entered his glory. When the other 10 disciples heard James and John wanted to take such honoured positions, they were pretty upset. Jesus had to calm them all down, and told them that unlike in the world where people seek honour, if they wanted to become great they needed to be servants. Jesus told them “the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served”.
 
The concept of the greatest being the servant of all, isn’t natural for most of us; clearly the disciples needed reminding of this. When reclining at the table during the last supper, Jesus got up, took off his outer clothes, and washed the disciple’s feet. This was the job reserved for the lowest of servants, and when you think about it if they didn’t have a servant on hand perhaps one of the disciples should have offered to do the job. The message Jesus was giving to his team was pretty clear, if the master could do the lowest job, serving one another was the order of the day.
 
So why is service such a good discipline to practice in our walk with Jesus? For a start it’s what Jesus said to do, also:

• Serving builds humility when we purposefully put ourselves lower than others.
• Serving builds our love and compassion for others.
• Serving opens our eyes, often when we are serving others we see their real needs.
• Serving is the pathway to greatness.
• When serving we are most like Jesus, we are literally imitators of Christ when we are serving others.

When we are serving our attitude is important, and it will be tested; when we serve:

• Serve humbly.
• Serve with a pure and glad heart.
• Serve without expectation of reward.
• Don’t be surprised if you get treated like a servant, it can be a thankless task.
• Work heartily and know your inheritance is in heaven.
• Consider serving in and area outside you natural gifting, this can really be a challenge to our attitude. 

​​Serving others usually doesn’t come naturally. Jesus told us as disciples we should take up our cross and follow him, he didn’t tell us to sit back on a cushion while someone serves us a cup of coffee. Serving is in a small measure dying to ourselves by putting other first.
 
As we consider serving others, let’s think about ways we can serve those around us at home, at work or at school, in our community and at church. If we are treating service as a discipline, something we practice until it becomes second nature; then why not consider looking for the most unglamorous role, with the least recognition, and do that. Do it with no expectation of reward, knowing that in serving we are becoming more like Jesus.


Philip Manson