The Discipline of Service

Note: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is our last post in this series. What a joy it has been to share these disciplines. We hope that as you engage in them, the practice of them would alter your life too. (You can start from the beginning of the series here.)       

I struggle with being interrupted, especially when I have my mindset on accomplishing something. I am the type of person who loves to see a project finished completely and then I stare at the finish product for like 5 minutes in awe of how wonderful it came out. (Can anyone relate?)

As a mom, interruptions are a part of my daily life, and when I first became a mom that was a huge problem. I struggled with the idea that my life would no longer look the same. I wouldn’t be able to complete a task the way I used to. I wouldn’t be able to sit down and give my full attention to the task the way I used to. I would have to plan for less in a day, knowing that realistically I could only afford to juggle so many projects in one day and do them well. 

Joshua helped me a lot (and still does) with this area. He’d look at me and say “Mama, it is ok. This doesn’t have to get done today. You did as much as you could today. You can keep working on this tomorrow”. 

I didn’t want to hear “you can keep working on this tomorrow”. The administrator in me wanted to see tasks completed according to its deadline.

Here is the thing, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that Joshua was right. I was putting all this pressure on myself to get projects accomplished. As a result, I was becoming frustrated with whatever or whomever caused the interruption or prevented me from completing the task. 

And as a mom, guess who that person often was? 

Yup, my kid.

I realized this had to change. The way I planned and looked at my “to-do” list had to change. The way I looked at these interruptions had to change.

So after lots of time in the Secret Place and Papa God nudging me in the right direction, I realized I had to stop viewing interruptions as annoyances, but as opportunities to serve. Every time my kid interrupted me to play, to talk, to chase him, to tickle him, they were opportunities to serve him well as his mama. When phone calls would come rolling in or people would randomly drop by my house to talk...these were all opportunities to serve my community well.  

Now I am not saying we don’t set healthy boundaries or can’t ever tell our kid to hold on a second, but I am saying that I had swung too far on the other side of the pendulum. I was missing out on opportunities to serve and love people well because I was choosing to see those interruptions as a nuisance-the thing preventing me from completing my agenda. 

Here is the thing about service: it is not about you. It is not about what you can get out of it, how it benefits you. It is about giving of your time, energy or resources for the benefit of others.

Jesus understood and understands this. 

Matthew chapter 9 gives us a look into “a day in the Life of Christ” (and man, did He have some wild days). The chapter starts off as Jesus is speaking to John the Baptist’s disciples about fasting. The Bible tells us that as Jesus was speaking, the leader of the synagogue interrupted  Jesus because the man’s 12 year old daughter was dead. He believed that Jesus could bring her back to life. And what does Jesus do? He stops teaching and goes with the man. As Jesus is on His way to resurrect this young girl, a woman interrupts Him by touching the hem of His garment. It wouldn’t be much of an interruption, except she has been bleeding for 12 years and the moment she touches Jesus’ robe power comes out of Him. The woman is completely healed. He finally arrives at the leader’s home and Jesus resurrects the leader’s daughter. As He is leaving, two blind men begin following Jesus and shouting at Him (like seriously guys-shouting). Jesus touches their eyes and heals them too. 

Talk about a busy day; full of what we would consider interruptions. Here is what we see: 

What we would consider interruptions, Jesus considered opportunities. Jesus saw these moments as opportunities to serve, to demonstrate love, to show compassion, to be merciful and to demonstrate His glory. 

Today, we have the same opportunities. We get to choose to be like Jesus in our service. This means that the next time our kids come to show us something or our spouse really wants to talk or a friend needs a listening ear, we can take a moment to consider the opportunities presented. The opportunities to serve our kids, to demonstrate love to our spouse, to show compassion to a friend, to be merciful within our community and to bring Jesus glory. Let’s try leaning into those opportunities. 

It is interesting that in the same chapter we just discussed (Matthew 9) , the chapter where Christ does all this serving in one day, ends with this:

37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields.”

There is work to be done. The harvest is great. Jesus is looking for people who are ready to serve, ready to take advantage of the opportunities set before them. Are we willing to be interrupted, to put our agenda to the side and invest our time working the fields? 

It’s not always easy, but the more we engage in the discipline of service the more natural it will become to us. Jesus has equipped us with all we need to serve. Jesus has gifted us with disciplines that when practiced, hone us and mold us. The practice of all the other disciplines we have written about, allows for the discipline of service to become a part of our daily devotion to Jesus. This is why we saved the disciplines of worship and service for the end of this series. These two disciplines are a result of all the others. They should be our response to Jesus after regularly practicing the other disciplines. 

May we dare to respond in service. 

May we make room for interruptions. 

May we embrace the opportunities to serve. 

Until Next Time,

We Are Ecclesia

Ps. How do you respond to interruptions? What has helped you respond better to them? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.