I think it was Mark Twain who said, “The best way to cheer your self up is to
try to cheer somebody else up."
Whether you’re going through a relationship
breakup, or bummed about something challenging in your life, it helps to take the
focus off yourself and your her own problems.
My friend Barbara did that. She was
going through a breakup and wanted to move her perspective from self to God—and
make a difference for His good purposes.
Barbara said, “It felt right, and
it gave me purpose.”
Despite her circumstances Barbara
found that when she was blessing others with acts of service and kindness, God blessed her with joy. Instead of
waiting for another man to come around, she could “wait on” or serve others.
“Like a waitress who serves other people, I can wait on God while waiting on God.” she concluded. Whatever we do for others, we
essentially do for Jesus Christ. (Matthew 25:40).
I have to remember that my life is
not just about me. God created us for Himself and part of that is serving other
people. “For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
The reason we serve, though, is not
because good works will save our souls. No, God gave us grace for that. It’s
not to earn points for favor with God. We serve others because God asks us to,
and because He has done so much for us.
It is out of a heart of delight,
not just duty that we choose to serve others.
So we go across the ocean, not just
to tell, but to demonstrate love to a ten-year-old boy in the Czech
Republic who has never heard of God’s love. We
show up on Saturday mornings at the rescue mission to serve food to those who
don’t have enough eat. Or even, like my friend Anne, we offer to drive our
non-churched friends to church so they can hear the truth about God’s love and forgiveness
and be forever changed.
"If
you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the
oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will
become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)
Think of the Christian life as a
two-sided sponge—the yellow spongy side absorbs the water and the rough, green
side scrubs. Likewise, we absorb
God’s truth (through reading the Bible, hearing a speaker, or reading a book,
for example) and then we go out and serve.
First the Word, then the work.
You may be surprised at the divine
appointments God puts in your path as you open your eyes to the needs around
you. It doesn’t even have to be an organized service project. Serving can
include something as simple as being kind to the woman behind the counter at
the dry cleaners. When you take the time to say “hello” and smile, even when
you think you are in too much of a hurry, it can make a difference in one
person’s day.
Dwight L. Moody once said "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot
do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of
God, I will do."
What are
you willing to do to serve God by serving others today?
You may just end up being, as C. S. Lewis said, “surprised
by joy.”
