Having a Servant's Heart

When I was younger, my family would have a garage sale every year in our driveway to get rid of all the clothes we grew out of. My siblings and I would always make cookies and lemonade with my mom the day before and sell them at a little table. I loved collecting the money we got, which probably meant a lot more to my eight year old self than it does now. One year, I remember I was helping my parents set up for the garage sale when my mom told me that I have a servant's heart. Now, I know she meant this as a compliment, but then, I went inside and cried because I didn’t want to serve others forever. All that little Mallory wanted to do was my own thing, and taking care of other people’s needs all the time sounded so boring! However, the more I look back on it, the more I think about how important it is to have a servant’s heart. When I say that, I don’t mean you should be in the mindset of cleaning up after people, I mean having the attitude that you want to clean up after others and take care of them as an act of love from God.

In this blog post, I want to cover what serving looks like in the Christian community, and tell you guys my experiences with serving, because I have been blessed to be in so many different situations where I have been encouraged to serve people and groups of people, as well as God.

Why do we serve?

The answer to this is actually a lot more simple than it seems: we serve because we love! When you love somebody, it is your natural reaction to want to take care of them, and protect them. By the way, this isn’t just a love between husband and wife: this is a love for everyone around you. Friends, siblings, and even strangers are people that you can love, and show service for. This love isn’t just a convenient type of love where you do something for somebody else because it’s easy at the moment. Serving like Jesus did requires unconditional love, and an integrity for putting others before yourself. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-14). Because we have been freed by God when we accepted Jesus into our hearts, us Christians are called to take our lightened burden and use it to serve each other.

In addition, we serve so that we can glorify God. No matter what kind of service you are doing, if you do it with the right heart attitude, you will be able to point to God through your humility and willingness to work. This will show non-believers how Christians stand out from the rest of the world, and make them curious as to why you spend so much of your time giving yourself away for others. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24). Service is such a beautiful form of love that I think the world does not portray enough.

Serving like Jesus!

If you don’t know where to start with serving, there is one really big example of somebody who dedicated their entire life to serving others and the Lord. That person is no other than Jesus Christ! If you read the Gospels, you will see so many examples of Jesus serving, and they all helped point people to God’s character. Even in the books following the Gospels, the writers display how Jesus used his humble status of a human to love us on a whole other level.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:1-11).

Think about this: if Jesus was fully man, yet fully God, why didn’t he spend all his time on this earth making a big throne and exalting himself? Our Lord is mighty, righteous, and perfect, and he deserves that, so why didn’t Jesus do that? The reason is because Jesus came to show the world who God is, and to show them his love. By serving others, Jesus showed all people God’s unconditional love. This means that Jesus would heal and save people, no matter their status. Jesus would give comfort even to those that despise Christians and wanted nothing to do with them.

When I read Bible stories of Jesus serving others and performing miracles, I always assumed that every single one of those people that witnessed those events got saved. I mean, if you saw someone being raised from the dead, wouldn’t you want to follow the guy that did it? However, I learned that so many of the people that Jesus served didn’t even say a thank you, much less gave their life to him. This didn’t stop Jesus, though, because he kept serving others until his final moments on the cross, and even after that! “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28). If we want to truly serve, Jesus must be the first person that we look to for guidance. He exemplifies what it means to serve, and how to serve others. He is the perfect example!

My experiences: What Camp Carl has taught me about serving

I don’t know how many of you know what Camp Carl is, but it is such a huge part of my life! It is the Christian church camp I have gone to for probably five or six years now, and it has had a tremendous impact on my faith, especially in the area of serving others and God. At Camp Carl, there is a leadership camp for high schoolers called “Crew”, which I have done four different times. In this leadership camp, you spend a week working in the kitchen with the staff: washing dishes, cleaning up after the campers, and giving yourself away so that the camp can run as smoothly as possible. Now, we obviously have fun and play lots of games, but the Crew leaders are very focused on teaching us what it means to serve, and how to become a “servant leader”.

As I just mentioned, when I was a member of Crew, I spent a week doing dishes, and probably about 10 hours of it. I remember how I would be running back and forth to put away big bowls and pans, and how I would fill up a million water pitchers, and even how I fell asleep once in the middle of carrying a gigantic bin of forks (I’m grateful that didn’t turn out to be a disaster). Everybody that I was working with agreed that it was hard work, and that we were always exhausted by 9 in the morning, but we all knew that we were working towards something greater than ourselves. If we didn’t work so hard to get the lodge all cleaned up and prepared for the campers and the staff, everything else would run behind. This means that some activities would have to be skipped, plans would be demolished, and there would be a decent amount of chaos between the staff trying to figure things out. So, we all worked our butts off from the time we got there on Sunday to when we left on Friday.

The biggest thing that I learned from working in the kitchen at Camp Carl is that no matter how tired you are, or how sick you may be of washing dishes, don’t quit! We were always working towards something bigger, a greater goal than just our own wants. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). By the time the week was over, so many staff members and campers recognized how much work we put into our time in the kitchen and all throughout the camp, and were grateful for it all. We had a small ceremony to honor our humility and unity, and to celebrate a week of hard work and getting to know each other through serving the Lord. It was such a fun experience, and I would recommend it to any high school student that wants to learn what it is like to put others before yourself. My participation in such a cool thing really gave me a new perspective on loving other people and serving for the glory of God.