We are nearing the end of our study of spiritual disciplines – practices that enable us to draw closer to God and shape a life that is pleasing to God.  We’ve talked about prayer – honest, forthright, regular conversations with God; and about our need to gather with other Christians to worship; and about how essential it is for us to read the Bible every day.  I hope you have some green dots scattered around your home and office and car to remind you to pray.  I hope you picked up a Life Journal to begin the practice of daily Bible reading.

Sunday we moved from these “inward” kinds of disciplines – practices that shape our hearts and spirits; to more “outward” disciplines, beginning with the discipline of service.  We follow one who got down on hands and knees to wash the feet of his disciples, and then invited them to do as he did, serving rather than being served.  Our calling as followers of Jesus is to be servants, putting the needs of others above our needs, finding meaning and purpose as we teach Sunday School or build a Habitat house or clean up a neighborhood or fix a faucet or lift voices in a choir or read scripture or prepare communion or stuff bulletins, and doing every bit of it in Jesus’ name.   That service is not to end because we retire from full time work, or reach a certain age, or put in a certain number of years “doing our part.”  Jesus didn’t quit.  He served till he died.  His death was an act of service as he offered his life to buy our freedom.

One day each one of us will stand before the King, and give an account of how we spent our lives.  Our Lord will not be impressed by the big screen televisions we bought and used, or the vacations we took, or the cars we drove, or the houses we lived in, but by the hungry stomachs we filled, and the children whose lives we touched with the love of Jesus; and by the folks who were blessed by our labors and our presence.

What I want to hear at that moment, more than anything else, are these words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

How about you?

See you at the serving place next Sunday.

Blessings,

Pastor Deborah