My wife and I are blessed with three outstandingly brilliant and beautiful daughters. The older two are in their teen years and the youngest is not far from that age either. So they’re capable and engaging girls. Indeed they are resourceful and resilient girls and it’s a delight to observe their development. It’s my thing, as a parent, to look at their behaviours, personality traits and the like to see what’s unique to them and what reminds me either of their Mum or Dad.
One aspect in their character is highlighted in their interaction with their Mum. She will ask one of them to prepare and deliver a hot beverage. One of them (I’m not going to say who) when asked might respond by flouncing around and wondering why she has to do it and why she’s being disturbed and bothered. At this reaction to the request, the Mum will quickly state clearly that if this is going to be her attitude to the task at hand, she would rather it was not done by this particular daughter. The daughter will weigh up the situation in her head and wisely take back the somewhat selfish attitude, seek favour from her Mum and duly go on to prepare and present the beverage to the best of her ability.
It is not done like a chore, it is done as an act of service to her Mum in response to the request in acknowledging and celebrating the relationship they have. (While we’re there, I won’t let you know which parent she follows closely with that attitude especially the flouncing bit. I’ll keep that a mystery. After all, I don’t want to incriminate myself.)
As an avid observer of football, I’m fascinated with the stories behind the successes and failures. I hear a lot about how professional should behave and the basic as well as fundamental qualities that players should adhere to at all levels. I hear that, and yet there are still those exceptional cases and stories where a group of players are able to progress and raise their level of performance together to achieve beyond what their individual qualities suggest. Clearly the players are not just organised, but they play with a drive and desire that never sees them give up, never sees them know when to quit or when they’re beaten. For a period of time that group of players, even with little changes in personnel, attain a habit of winning based on an attitude that propels them above their peers in other teams. And usually the force behind that team’s success is about the manager or head coach. Something about that individual who never takes to the field of play, but transmits his ethos and aura to his players who take it to the pitch and win things.
Both of these scenarios give me an insight into the mark that Paul addresses with this word,
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Romans 12:11
Believers are called to be members of the family of God and that’s a wonderful privilege. We get to express that with family members as take delight in honouring them, as we express brotherly affection, as we hate what’s evil and hold onto what’s good and as we love with the true love we get from our heavenly Father. That’s all great stuff.
Yet every believer is also called to serve. Our capacity to serve anyone else is sourced in how we serve the Lord. And how we serve the Lord is best reflected in how we serve each other. That service is marked by a diligence and enthusiasm. Indeed we’re diligent to maintain the enthusiasm in serving because something we don’t want to show to the Lord is that we’re doing what we’re doing under duress. We don’t want to moodily drag ourselves to serve the Lord as though it’s a great inconvenience to us or worse still as though we’re doing a favour for God in serving Him.
This is also where that wonderful word enthusiasm comes into its own, because that word expresses something about the spiritual. It’s not something we can bottle. It’s not something tangible that can be passed onto others like it’s pass the parcel. No. Enthusiasm is a spiritual quality. In this case our relationship with God, our acknowledging Him as our Lord and our recognition that He has uniquely equipped and set us up to be able to serve leads to a reliance on His Spirit to serve in a way pleasing to Him. We maintain that so our service isn’t sloppy. We maintain that so our service to the Lord is something He’ll be pleased with. Not in that way that’s dreading punishment if we mess up. It’s in that way similar to those players in that team being led and inspired by a manager who makes it their delight to turn up to train, to turn up to support each other and to turn up to do their best to ensure victory for the team.
Seving the Lord only looks and sounds arduous because of less than flattering images and concepts we have of service and lordship. This is why focusing on the image of our Lord as the servant helps us appreciate that there is a model we can look to – a model of dedication, joyful obedience and determined diligent service. This is something our Lord Jesus exhibited even to the point of washing the feet of His disciples. He was able to do all of that as He operated full of the Spirit. It is not a picture of ease in doing so. It is the image of commitment and dependence at play that leads to service marked by a drive based on that relationship with the loving, caring, all-wise, compassionate heavenly Father.
Being vigilant about this issue cannot be downplayed. If we ever veer into a cruise mentality as though serving doesn’t require diligent enthusiasm, this can lead to complacency and a sense that we can do this in our own strength. We could find ourselves in a similar position to Samson thought he could just go about beating up the Philistines not appreciating that his loose lips had brought about his downfall.
Likewise with constant service can come a weariness. Routine can turn something you used to do with passionate energy into something you do because you’ve always done it, you can do it and now you just want to get it over and done with so you can do something else that might be enjoyable. It’s like reading the script so often that although you can recite the words, you don’t remember the motive and appreciate the spirit behind those words.
We have to be mindful. We must be vigilant. We have got to constantly remember and return to the Lord, Himself. Depend on Him, get an insight into who He is and rely on the same Spirit that filled Him, that lives in us and ensure that our service to the Lord won’t be lukewarm or lacklustre.
It’s a great privilege watching this in action. There are occasions where I’ll have the privilege of gathering with saints and it’s time for serving each other with what God has given us to serve. It makes me smile recalling the stories that saints would share about how before the time of serving they were exhausted or tired through the grind and exertion of life, yet as they engaged in dependence on the Spirit of God and as they prayed, they were given energy to enthusiastically go about their serving. Not unusual to hear of people who had come in looking as though they couldn’t wait for the time together to finish, reached a place where they were sad to see the time together end. That’s about their divine encounter and godly dependence putting them in the place to serve Him with diligent enthusiasm.
That’s not just something that benefits those within the family of faith. It’s not an exclusive thing that’s hidden in the holy huddle of believers. This quality inspires saints to love their community – look out for those who are destitute and disadvantaged; advocating for the voiceless; providing for the needy; lifting the downtrodden. Through regular means or innovative methods saints of the Most High God who recognise how they’ve been so well served by the Lord go onto serve the Lord with gladness in their neighbourhoods and spheres of influence.
When there are hidden agendas and a drive for profit in the behaviour and action of others, followers of Jesus are marked by a desire to be diligent in enthusiastically serving Him. It’s what marks them out as those who love Him. We have something far greater than the loving relationship between that Mum and her daughter. We have something far greater than those teams that win because of an inspirational manager. We get to service an amazing and awesome Lord and He gives us His strength to serve. Diligence in enthusiastic service flows from that.
That is a mark of a true Christian.
(This blog series was inspired by the Christian meditation on The Marks of a True Christian from the Encounter podcast.)
(Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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