Vow VI: Service

a generous life

The poet William Wordsworth once wrote,

Small service is true service while it lasts.
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.

Small service is true service while it lasts. The smallest effort matters. So I wonder what Christian service looks like.

It looks like generosity. It looks like giving. This God who we are being transformed into the image of so loved the world that he gave. I have time. I have resources. I have gifts and talents. I have been given much. Thus, I have much to give.

In the Abrahamic convenant (Genesis 12), YHWH promises to Abram that will be blessed to be a blessing. As the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang: Give it away, give it away, give it away, now.

One of my favorite illustrations from C.S. Lewis involves a vision about the difference between heaven and hell. He sees a long banquet table filled with the most sumptuous feast. Strangely, none of the guests at the table have elbows. For half of these guests, the situation is tortuous. The most pleasurable foods immaginable are at their fingertips and yet they cannot bring the food to their mouths.

For the other half, the situation is the most joyous party. They have discovered that the secret to enjoying the meal is in serving one another. Each has dismissed the vain attempts of feeding oneself and given themselves completely to feeding each other.

This to me is the picture of Christian community. This is what it means that I am not my own. I, and all that I am and have, is the community's. Even this season in seminary is not for my benefit. Rather it is for the benefit of people of God.

Blessed to be a blessing. We have been given generous gifts beyond measure. We have no excuse to be generous with one another.

Lord, make us a house of service.