The other half

I realized something a month or so ago, as we were discussing the state of the church. Each of us, while commonly seeking to serve God and the church as best as we know how, have personal passions for areas of service, or the need for fellowship, or worship, or evangelism.

I realized that one guy that I thought had a very similar bent to my own, instead has a different sort of passion. One of our three "arms" in the church philospohy is "Serving the World." We like to call this "Servant Evangelism" in that we believe we show Christ to the world best when we are doing what he did and serving others. This is the direction that I really wanted to see a church participating.

He has a passion for this too, but I came to realize that his passions point him towards evangelism - that the point of such things is to, as much as we can, interact with others for the sake of revealing Christ to them in our words and actions.

I, perhaps, am more selfish. I've been thinking about how "The greatest in the kingdom of heaven must be last of all and servant of all." I want to give (of our time and efforts) so that the right hand does not know what the left is doing, so that our Father who sees what is done in secret will reward us. I'm in favor of serving the lowest in any way we can, even if we cannot show them to their face who Christ is. I don't want the noteriety, the publicity, the attention, or the glory.

And so we have slightly different objectives when looking at "how can we serve?" I want to find private, useful things. He wants to find real, personal things (where there is the opportunity for face-to-face conenctions). Neither of us is wrong, I think. And it's nice to know that we aren't all the same, sharing the same blind spots.

I have also been thinking about how to put this principle to work. One small way was picking up the hotel room as much as possible before I left - leaving used towels on the counter so the maid wouldn't have to stoop to grab them, putting my used soap, shampoo, and soap-wrappings in the trash, using only one trash can, resetting the AC to the same level as when I arrived.

I'd say that it means being the doormat of the world, but even Jesus retired when it was necessary - though I think we're more likely to use that as an excuse not to go the extra mile than we are to be really pushing to the limits as He did.

So the next time you feel imposed upon, when you want to demand your rights and assert your dominance, remember that those who are great in the kingdom that matters, are those who are the last of all, and the servant of all. And "all" includes the person doing the imposing. And serve them, and God, with a smile.