As we continue this road to Easter, celebrating our own version of “Lent,” we’re going to spend each week focusing on practices that we can be deliberate about to help us focus on Jesus and attend to our spiritual lives just as deliberately as we attend to our physical lives. This week, we’re going to be focusing on the practice of “service.”
The summer before I started seminary, I served for a week at a camp for kids with special needs. (I saw the camp on an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and knew immediately that I wanted to volunteer to be a part of it.)
For the week that I was there, I was paired up with a 13-year old with severe developmental delays. Every day from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., I was responsible for making sure he ate three meals a day, attended all the camp activities he could, and didn’t miss any bathroom breaks or other necessary daily activities.
To say that the week was difficult would be an understatement. The young man that I was assigned to was incredibly sweet, but unable to do much without my help. By the end of the week, I was exhausted and ready to go home so that I could have some “me time.”
In light of my experience, it’s amazing to me that Jesus’ whole life was dedicated to the act of serving others. As He says about Himself in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus—the only one who had the true right to be served by others—gave His whole life as an act of service towards us.
That’s why I’d encourage you—this week, look for ways that you can serve those around you. It can be in something as simple as holding a door open for someone on your way out of a coffee shop. Or it can be as elaborate as spending a few days taking care of those who struggle to take care of themselves.
No matter what it is, we are seldom more like God than when we take steps to serve other people. It’s not easy. It’s not always (immediately) rewarding. But when we take steps of selflessness to help those in need, we provide one of the greatest glimpses to others the heart of our Savior. And isn’t that what this season is all about?