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Making yourself available

18th December 2008

What does the word 'serve' mean to you? We're talking about serving suffering humanity, and everything that's wrapped up in that! Social justice, community transformation, mission, speaking words of encouragement and just about everything you can think of which involves loving others.

In these articles, we'll talk about serving and specifically I'll walk you through the things that I've learnt about what it takes to be a servant!

When I speak about being a servant, I'm not talking about being a butler or waitress or cleaner. We're talking about being Jesus. Jesus gave us the best example of how to live life, in fact, let's check him out in action!

So...What did Jesus do???

To set the scene, Jesus and his "posse" of twelve mates are hanging out as they often did. Two of them (James and John, who happen to be brothers) start asking Jesus if they can sit at his right and left hand in heaven. When the other ten find this out, they get angry and starting bagging out the other two for what they think was a ridiculous request.

Jesus stops them and - as he did so well - he begins to teach them. He says this:

Matthew 20:25-28 (The Message)
When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man (Jesus) has done: He came to serve, not be served-and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."

Jesus tells us that in the Kingdom of God, it's those who place themselves last in line, putting others first, who are truly great. It's no wonder we sometimes call the Kingdom of God the upside-down kingdom! Jesus says, he himself came not to be served but instead, to wait on others, to love others, to look after others, to wash others feet (yuck!), to encourage and bless others.

Jesus' life is marked in the way he helped, blessed, served, healed and fed others. All of this was an act of extreme service. He didn't serve them like a butler or maid, but he did offer them a service. Basically, whenever Jesus encountered a need - he met it!

Check this out...

A modern day example of service can be found (funnily enough), in an advertising campaign. Check this out on Youtube...

Now...I can't comment on the dolphin bit at the end (there's probably some deep metaphorical meaning in there, but I'm choosing not to delve into that at this present time), but what a beautiful example of a servant heart! I wanted to draw on the fact this guy made himself available. He went throughout his day seeing the needs others and instead of ignoring them or shrugging them off, he stopped and helped. Basically, he made himself available to serve others!

How often in our hectic lives do we find ourselves making excuses? We're usually simply too busy and just don't have enough time to help out at such and such. Can I challenge you? Busyness is simply not an acceptable excuse for not serving!

What can I do???

So...we all lead pretty hectic lives, but if busyness isn't an excuse, what can we all do?

I challenge you to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and underline all the times when Jesus helped/healed/loved whilst he was busy. Now your pen will get a work out and I think you'll amazed at how truly available Jesus was and just how much he made time for people.

Make a decision to be willing to be interrupted in your everyday life and be willing to change or interrupt your schedule to benefit another person. I'll leave you with a quote from an incredible servant-hearted woman, who understood the power of making yourself available:

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better" - Mother Theresa

Nathan coordinates Streetlevel's Edify program, an urban mission discipleship program located in Surry Hills, Sydney. He is passionate about the lost, the last and the least, believing the best days of this generation are to come!