This week we are going to look at all of the ways that we saw to serve last week and determine why we did some of the things and not the others. I know that there are so many avenues of service out there that we can not possibly serve in every opportunity. But why do we choose some service over others? Are we more likely to serve people who look like us, who seem nice, who we already know? The answer for me is yes. I sometimes tend to serve people who I think I could serve more easily. To be honest, some times I also want to serve in a way that requires me only to do a big one-time service and get it over with. I don’t want to do the small seemingly insignificant continual acts of service- the types of service that call us to make ourselves uncomfortable for the comfort of others on a regular basis.
‘Wouldn’t it be grand if Christ’s call to the life and to finding our mission involved a one-time decision followed by ceaseless joy and success? Paul’s life provides evidence that following Jesus is a tumultuous road.
Okay,so we’ve made a decision and chosen the life. We’ve rejected non-discipleship Christianity and made a firm, lifelong commitment to follow Jesus. Yet we must still live it out daily in the middle of temptation, weakness, illness,opposition, and the appearance of failure. Everyday we must again say, ‘Yes, Jesus, I’ll follow you today. I’ll resist heading out on my own just because I don’t like the results you gave me yesterday. I won’t bail out even though others are abandoning ship like rats. And I’ll follow you today even though I feel I’ve misunderstood your mission for me and that’s why I’m depressed.’
Choosing the life involves both attitude and action, and the battle is waged as we live out the life each day.’
Bill Hull The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ, p. 127
Do we choose discipleship even when it requires us to get out of a comfort zone and do something we wouldn’t normally do?
Every day this week I want us to go out of our way to serve in a manner that is unnatural to us. When we get together to talk about this, it may surprise us to hear about the things that are unnatural to others. A lot of times, we tend to think that what is natural to us should be natural to others. God had gifted all of us differently and our natural ways of service is just one of those many gifts. Please keep a list of the different ways you serve this week. It doesn’t have to be a long explanation of what you did, just a brief summary to share with everyone. To help us think about different ways of service I have attached a section from Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in which he discusses ’service in the marketplace.’
So, this week your tasks if you choose to accept them are:
* Pray daily for opportunities to serve
* At least once a day serve in a way that comes a little unnaturally for you.
* Keep a list of the ways you served