MIDWEEK MESSAGE – October 6, 2021

One of the best things we can do when we are thrown a curveball in life is service. Service is, not only good for our soul and lifts us from whatever depth we are in, it also is a gift where the true recipient is the giver – not the receiver.

Serving others is not helping others. When we help others we are coming from a place where we think we can fix someone which implies they are broken. When we serve we come from a place where we do not see the person or thing as unequal to ourselves.

We can help at a distance (we can send money to a place where we think needs it) but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected, that which we are willing to touch. This was Mother Teresa’s basic message. She understood that we serve life not because it is broken but because it is whole and holy.

Fixing and helping are very personal. They are particular, concrete, and specific. We fix and help many different things in our lifetimes, but when we serve we are always serving the same thing – God. I believe what Bill Wilson wrote years ago, that our main purpose in life is to be of maximum service to God and others

Unlike fixing and helping (which often drains us), serving God and others renews us. Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery, which has an unknown purpose, and when we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose.

Quote of the Week
“I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was a joy.”
Rabindranath Tagore