Do you remember full-service gas stations? You know, the kind that you bring your car to the gas pump and someone comes out to fill up your vehicle, check your oil levels, and check your tire pressure? When is the last time someone served you like that? (And no, Chick-fil-A doesn’t count just because they always respond with those amazing words, ‘It’s my pleasure.’)

We aren’t particularly used to being served these days. Since the days of Covid, even restaurants, those glorious bastions of service of yesteryear, don’t really do a great job of service like they used to. A stereotype, I know, but let’s just admit that due to the inability to find as many willing workers, even the full-service restaurant industry just isn’t the same.

In our current time, being served well is a luxury that we shouldn’t take lightly. How does it feel when you are really served well by someone? You know, that feeling of truly being taken care of instead of feeling taken advantage of? It’s becoming more and more rare, yet it’s exactly what we are called to do, just as Jesus did. Consider these words from the Gospel of Mark:

“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.” (Mark 10:45)

Jesus could have claimed His authority as the Son of God in any situation, but He laid down His royalty and status for the sake of serving the broken, the needy, the poor, the orphan, and more, as often as He could. I believe that Jesus understood something that we don’t often understand – there is more of a blessing in serving than there is in being served. 

When we serve others, we set aside our own needs, as real as they are, for the sake of another. We sacrifice our time and our comfort to do something that puts another first. In a culture of narcissism and obsession with self-care, serving others is cure for our own self-obsession. When is the last time you served someone else at the expense of yourself? We often do favors for someone else in hopes that we will earn a favor from them in return. But what if there is no return on that investment? 

Serving is one of the acts that is at the heart of discipleship. The call to follow Christ is really a call to die to ourselves, and when we serve, that’s what we are actually doing – dying to ourselves in that small moment for the sake of elevating another. This is so GOOD for us! 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that God loves a cheerful giver, and that is the posture of our hearts even when we give our time and abilities to serve someone else.  

Let’s challenge ourselves this week to go out of our way and serve someone around us – without the expectation of getting something in return. By doing so, we become more like Christ, and that’s part of being a disciple.

-Pastor Dusty