To love is to serve

So here's what's on my heart tonight:

Jesus showed us that loving means serving. He and His Father also said that loving means obeying. Jesus demonstrated through his life's work that the heart of God is serving the hungry, the widows, the orphans, the homeless, and the imprisoned. Anyone down on their luck or trampled on by society are the ones that we are commanded to show compassion to.

I'm leading the community service ministry at my church and it's honestly been a bit frustrating at times. There's a surprising amount of people I've encountered that say they are too busy, aren't skilled enough, or (my personal favorite) just don't feel like serving (although I do appreciate the latter's honesty). My initial reaction has been to get a little indignant. I mean, Jesus tells us pretty plainly that serving is what we should be doing. It's pretty unquestionably a requirement of anyone who claims to love Jesus.

And that's where my heart is starting to change. I've been praying for God to convict my church family. To make them realize how wrong it is to not serve. But what I should be praying is that they fall head over heels in love with Jesus.

I'm reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (good book, btw). In it, he talks about his church and the awesome ministries they have (like feeding 100+ homeless teenagers every week). But the process by which these ministries come about is one that involves prayer, fasting, and seeking the face of the God they love.

I've realized that there's not a whole lot of point in being a warrior for social justice unless it comes from a place of loving Jesus so much that you are swept away into service for Him. When you love someone, you want to know what's important to them. You want to experience those things with them. Community service shouldn't come from a sense of obligation, but from a desire to show Jesus how much you love Him and live out that love.

So I feel like a jerk for looking down my nose at some of my church family because Jesus wasn't doing the same things in them that He was doing in me. I'm now quite certain He's been doing equally amazing - albeit different - things in their lives. And now I'm excited to pray that Jesus sweeps them off their feet and they love Him more and more everyday. Because I'm starting to see what that looks like and I can't help wanting everyone to see the humble love that Jesus offers. I want everyone to know what amazing fruit being joyfully inconvenienced for your Savior can bring.