This I Believe: To Have A Servant's Heart

This is something I was required to write for a beyond pointless class I'm taking, but I mean every word of it.

I believe that I am called to be a servant.

When I was a kid, I was given a list of pretty generic rules to follow: be nice to your brother, share your toys, clean up your mess, don’t take other people’s stuff, take turns, be patient, use your manners; the list goes on and on. Now let’s be honest, what kid between the ages of 2 and 12 is even remotely good at any of these things?

Exactly.

And I was no exception.

Not that I was ever a terror, but not even my best friend was EVER allowed to touch my Gameboy.

The first time I heard the Gospel after fully committing my heart to Jesus Christ (I had been in church my whole life, but getting a new perspective changed things), I realized that I was called to humble myself to God, to my future spouse, to everyone around me. I must admit I wasn’t fond of the idea. But that first time that I sat on the ground and washed the feet of inner-city kids, who came with their families to the food bank for school supplies, my heart was overcome with a joy that only comes from having the God-sized hole in my heart filled. It was gross. And I couldn’t have been happier.

It was as if the Holy Spirit filled me all the way up to the top and then some, as a way of telling me that serving is something I would always have to do to make my relationship with God mean something.

I know that most people feel that their lives are way too important to have to give in to what others want before they satisfy themselves, so serving is on the very bottom—if even at all—on their to-do lists. And believe me: I know what that’s like. But I believe that doing this—putting everyone else in the world before ourselves, to love and serve and care for them, because God, our Creator, calls us to do so—is the most fulfilling way of life.

If I am truly going to live a life that means something to me, and to the world, and to my heavenly Father, then I must serve with everything I have, and give until there is nothing left.

I believe we are to serve one another in everything we do, but ultimately we are to serve God with our thoughts, our words, our actions, and our lives. When we give of ourselves, we gain much more than we could’ve ever imagined.