SUMMER of SERVICE
Helloooooo there lovely ladies! Amy and I are PUMPED for us all to get started on our next blog series, Summer of Service!! We're excited because we have both experienced personal and spiritual growth through service over the years, and we want you to experience that too. We're excited because we hope that you'll get some good ideas about how to serve your friends, family, church, and community by sharing ideas right here on our blog. And finally, we're excited at the thought of you all learning more about our good, good Father and how great His love is for us--and how that inspires us to love and serve each other all the more.
serv·ice (noun) : the action of helping or doing work for someone
What comes to mind when you think of service? Maybe you think of earning "service hours" for a club at school by volunteering out in the community. Maybe your youth group does "service projects" like raking leaves for the elderly in your church or helping organize VBS. Or maybe you think of how you help your mom and dad at home by cleaning, doing your chores, or babysitting your brothers and sisters. All of these are great examples of service because they require a sacrifice on our behalf for the benefit of someone else.
That sacrifice may mean giving up our time, using up a lot of our energy, or missing out on something that would be more fun to do. On the other hand, sometimes service can be so much fun that it doesn't feel like a sacrifice at all! There are SO many ways to serve, and it can be SO rewarding to give to others... but more on that in the upcoming weeks. :) For starters, we have one BIG question to ask.
WHY do we serve??
Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the reason why we should serve in the first place. Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting the credit I deserve, or that nothing is changing despite how hard I'm working to help someone else. Sometimes I get so caught up in WHAT I'm doing that I forget WHO I'm doing it for.
Let me tell you a story. You may have actually heard it before: it's known as the "Prodigal Son" and it's found in Luke 15:11-32 (you should go read it!!). I'll paraphrase it here:
The Prodigal Son
A man had two sons. The older son was very responsible, very hardworking, and gave his father the respect he deserved. He worked hard for his father every day. The younger son was the complete opposite. One day he asked his dad to give him all of his inheritance (aka a lot of money), and he ran away and spent it ALL on "wild living." He knew he had messed up and was embarrassed to go back to his father, so he ended up working on a farm feeding pigs. He was so poor that even the PIGS were eating better than him. Finally, he decided that he would try going back home and begging for his father to hire him as his servant. He knew he didn't deserve his forgiveness--but hopefully he could at least make enough money working for his father to afford food to eat.
So the younger brother gets up the courage to go home after YEARS of being away and wasting his father's money. But to his surprise, his father isn't angry with him at all! His father actually RUNS to him, kisses him, and decides to immediately throw a huge welcome home PARTY! He immediately forgave his son and celebrated that he had returned.
That's such a great story, right? But wait...what about that older brother? Turns out, he was not so excited. He refused to go to the party. "Father, why would you throw a party for him, after he treated you so poorly?" He asked. "I've been over here serving you faithfully for years!! And you didn't throw a party for me!" But the father simply says, "You have been with me for years, but your brother was lost and now he is found, so we should celebrate!"
Love-Inspired Service
Wouldn't you be upset if you were the older brother? I know I would be! He was the good one. He did all the hard work and never disobeyed his father. Didn't he deserve to be celebrated?
The truth is, the older brother had it all wrong. He wanted to earn his father's love by doing good things. He wanted to be rewarded for what he did, just like an employee wants to be paid for doing their job. And the sad truth is, sometimes we think about God the same way the older brother thought about his father.
We know it is good to do works that benefit others. But we have to be careful that we aren't doing good works for the wrong reasons. Sometimes we do good things because we want to feel good about ourselves--we want to feel like we've done something to deserve God's love and His gifts.
But ladies, the truth is, we CANNOT earn God's love! The story of the Prodigal Son shows us just that--God doesn't love us because of what we've done or haven't done. He JUST LOVES US. He loves us with a big, mighty, unconditional love that we can't undo no matter what. Even if we mess up big time like the younger brother in the story, he will welcome us back with a celebration!
You see, it's that crazy amazing amount of GRACE and LOVE that God shows us that should inspire us to serve. Not because we feel like we have to serve. Not because serving impresses other people. Not because God will love us more if we serve.
We serve because God loves us unconditionally, and that inspires us to give our time and energy and love to others.
We serve others because God first served us when we least deserved it.
We serve out of our own love for God.
Love you and happy serving!
--Abbi
