Serving | Spiritual PracticesSýnishorn

“When he saw him, he took pity on him.”
– Luke 10:33 (NIV) –

Jesus tells a story about a Samaritan who finds a man beaten and bloody, half-dead on the side of the road. The religiously important pass him by, including a priest. But this Samaritan takes pity on him. He picks him up, bandages his wounds, puts him on his donkey, brings him to an inn, provides for his care, and incurs the cost. Even more. He arranges to check in on him again.

The whole thing flows out of something at the center of Jesus’s heart and call to being a disciple: Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus intertwines this command with another: Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

If you love God, you’ll love people. And if you love people, you’ll serve them, especially in their times of need.

Discovering your spiritual gifts was once all the rage. The idea was to find out how God wired you and what special ability God was giving you. Then, making that your focus, serving according to that discovery.

People would take inventories and tests. These questionnaires were meant to help us discern what our spiritual gifts happened to be. They were fun to take, and often insightful, but I remember how there was often a gap between “finding your gift” and putting it into play.

Years later, I heard Rick Warren, the founder of Saddleback Church in California and author of Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church, comment on spiritual gift inventories. He mentioned that when he took one, all it revealed to him was that his gift was martyrdom. Talk about a gift you only get to use once! Yet he went on to found one of the most influential churches in recent history.

Finding your spiritual gifts has value. But it can also get in the way.

This story about the Samaritan has something to teach us. Far more important than finding your gifts is meeting a need. The irony is when we just start serving, we often discover our gifts far more than through any survey.

“Needs” also don’t need to be glamorous or epic, like bringing clean water to a remote village or solving a hunger problem in a community. Those are great needs to be sure, but more often serving a need is mundane. It’s folding chairs and putting them away after an event or cleaning up a mess. It’s filling a gap when a volunteer doesn’t show because it wasn’t convenient or important enough for them to be there that day. It’s giving a literal neighbor a ride when their car is in the shop or mowing their lawn because they’re too old or sick. It’s the everyday things all around us that we often filter out, or step away from because “it’s not my job,” because “someone else will take care of it,” or because we wonder “what difference could I possibly make?”

Growing up, my mom was always the last person to leave an event. She didn’t worry about what her gifts were, whether she was asked, or if she was on the serving team. She just lent a hand with all the clean-up and tear-down that needed to be done.

We make serving complicated. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s keeping an eye out for the needs around us, and being a Samaritan.

Question
Serving is about responding to a need. To what degree do you focus on your gifts over needs? List 2-3 needs you can meet in your church or community today.