To Serve or to be Served

In today's society, we live at a hectic pace. We’re constantly on the go as life demands our time and attention at every turn. We strive for convenience, counting the hours, minutes, and seconds. It has built a sense of expectation into our lives. One that blinds us to the world around us.

Within this routine is an idea. We see it in commercials, media, and even billboards. We’ve come to expect it, and when we don’t find it we are immediately offended. Worse, we are horrified when it's found lacking. I’ve seen it repeatedly, because we live in a society that runs on the idea that others should serve us before we serve them.

We’ve become so accustomed to it. We expect to be served by others wherever we go. We even demand it. We’ve forgotten the idea of serving and being a servant to others. We’ll spit, cuss, cause a scene in the middle of Wal-mart, or fight expecting our due as if it were divinely ordained. We’ll berate, demean, and chastise the server when we don’t get what we want, when we want, how we want.

We don’t act with grace or humility. We don’t speak with understanding. We only see us and our needs. Jesus said,

“But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. 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.” - Matthew 20:26-28

But like kings and queens, we strut around the grocery store with an air of selfishness and dismissal around us. We’ve grown so engrossed with acquisition and what’s ours that we’ve lost all sense of humility. In fact, we see humility as a weakness.

That cashier you screamed at, the cart pusher you sneered at, the clerk you bad-mouthed who later got alone to cry because she heard you, all because you felt you were in the right; they have the same struggles as you. They work and live in an environment designed around serving others, but for their efforts, receive nothing but daily abuse.

What about the truck driver who spends hours on the road to feed his family? He’s the one delivering the goods, so you can buy them. Instead of getting angry with him for not having the right flavor of coke or the cream pie you so crave, consider the last time they hugged their kid or kissed their spouse? The long hours spent on the road, driving to and fro, are grueling, but love of family pushes them on.

If we, as believers, are called to be servants first, how can we call ourselves anything when we behave contrary to our calling? How can we smile on Sunday but call that cashier at Dollar Tree an idiot because they miscounted your change by accident?

Jesus was the model of service, so consider your words and actions carefully. We may live in an environment designed to make-believe service is a right, but it is, in fact, a privilege. One facilitated by others who have families of their own and are working hard to support them.

So when you go to the store and you find the service lacking and you see the cashier or whomever, ask yourself this: What kind of day are they having? Maybe your assignment is something as simple as a kind word to brighten their day. Sometimes that’s all it takes. Father uses us in different ways, and like dominoes falling into place, a kind word or action to a person who lives in an environment designed to be of service to others may be the catalyst to bring them to Christ later in life.

In this life, things are much more connected than we realize. Father made a universe that is organized and structured. Like it says in Hebrews:

“By faith, we know that the worlds were framed (or formed), by the word of God. Not from things which are seen, but that which is unseen.” - Hebrews 11:3

We are servants first and foremost, and our actions will show the fruit of who we are. We’re either rotten or ripe. People are always going to be watching us to see if we measure up to who we claim to be or if we are exactly the kind of ‘christian’ they’ve come to expect as the media portrays us. Because the world knows about those people very well and uses them as an excuse to say why Christianity is so irrelevant to them.

So I challenge you: find a new way to serve someone who may never expect it this week, and watch to see how God uses it for His glory.