Why Do I Do What I Do?

"The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;" Romans 8:6

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

I've been thinking a lot lately about service. When we first started going to the church as a family, I had determined a few things about joining this new church. The first one was that I was going to not do anything. Really. Growing up our family was always very, very involved and very busy with church. I was at church four times a week for different reasons, and each time there was some sort of service involved for me as well. In one given week I could be found teaching three different classes, playing the drums for two services, running weekly puppet practice, and helping coordinate activities for youth-among, many, many other activities. And that was all before I was even 18 years old. So when my husband and I joined this church I determined that I needed to just be. I wanted to be the person who didn't contribute, but rather just took it all in. It didn't take long for me to realize that was foolish behavior on my part.

But that brought me to my second determination. I was not going to take anyone else's area of service. Every single person at this small church had their different areas of service and tasks to do, what I didn't want was to be the person who swooped in and "stole" their area of service from them. So as a result of this determination, I also didn't contribute. Silly me. It didn't even occur to me that maybe some of these people were serving because they thought they had to. Because it was a small church and there wasn't anyone else to do what they did, but it didn't occur to me then that maybe some of the people there would want to take a break from what they did. Or that maybe there were areas of service that hadn't been explored yet within the church body because no one else had those ideas or talents.

Obviously, things have changed. I've become more involved, but it did take me a long time to get to the point of involvement. And the biggest reason for that is my spirit. It didn't take long before I had the desire to serve, but I didn't want to look like I was seeking attention for my service. So I suppressed the desire to serve. One thing that I had become aware of in my younger days was that sometimes I did things for the attention, not because it served God. I would do something for the accolades, or simply because it felt good doing it- not because of the real reason for doing it. To serve God.

That is the reason for service. The reason for becoming active within a church and a community, is solely for God's Glory. If we open up our minds and spirits to His Spirit and His Voice, the works that come out a result of listening to that voice are works of faith. If we take Jesus with us as we do our service, and hold him close in our hearts, the service we do is for him and of him and will mean so much more than if we just did something because we can.

That's why I do what I do. Every single thing that I do within our church and with other churches and within our community is done because the Holy Spirit has placed that need on my heart and showed me what needs to be done. He has asked me to serve- sometimes in areas I really don't want to, but I do it anyways. And in the end, when it is finished, and lives and hearts have been touched, I am overwhelmed with gladness and love for that voice that prompted me in the first place. I do what I do for the love of Jesus. Because he came to earth as a baby, and grew, and lived life here on earth for a time after spending eternity in a wonderful heaven, and because he died specifically for me... I give him my heart and my ability to serve with all my heart. My body and my mind are his, and I pray that he continues to guide me to where I am needed most.