Seven Passions: Servanthood

Servanthood

Love is more than a feeling; it is a tangible reality when it is shared with other people through acts of selfless service. The early Church fostered the notion that serving other people was the best means of demonstrating the example that Jesus had set for them. Servanthood also showed the transformation that their faith had wrought within them. Like Christ, they lived to serve rather than to be served. (pp. 23-24 - emphasis mine)

That last sentence really stands out to me. "They lived to serve rather than to be serve." They put others first. There were truly Christ-like.

It's not really enough to just say that we love people...much like it is just not enough to say that we "believe" in Jesus. Where's the weight behind those statements? Where's the beef?!

In the case of faith, action is that weight. In the case of love, service is the beef! When we love someone, we do what we can to put that person ahead of us. We do things to honor them. We do what we can to meet their needs.

Just like with our last passion intentionality is required with service as well. We can't just think that it will happen...that our love for others will be seen just because we exist in the world. Rather, we need to insist that because we exist in the world our love for others will be seen. We have to be intentional, looking for opportunities to serve the people around us...our family, friends, people in our communities...people we don't even know. Sometimes it will be obvious how we can do this (offering meals, giving encouragement, giving rides to someone without transportation, etc) while other times we need to be creative (pickup Steve Sjogren's 101 Ways to Reach Your Community for ideas).

Yes, this will stretch us all, for sure. But as we continue to live passionately outside of ourselves we will continue down the road of transformation...becoming, like the first Church, truly Christ-like.