Sister, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace to
Let you be my servant too.
As I was praying and contemplating what to write, this kept running through my head. It is a simple chorus to a traditional song, yet the words are compelling.
God made us for a relationship with Him and with each other. Many of us get the serving part down pretty well. We want to feel useful, involved, and connected. We volunteer and do lots of things to build up other believers. Those are all good things and generally come from a place of reverence and response to the grace that God has poured out on us.
For me, the tricky part is being as responsive to the second part of that chorus as I am to the first. We all have times of need. There is nothing weak or unacceptable about accepting the grace of God through the hands of His daughters.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be involved in a local community of The Walk to Emmaus. These are spiritual renewal weekends that are organized by Upper Room Ministries in Nashville, TN. The 72-hour experience is very structured and requires many people working together to make a truly unique and life-changing experience. The basic idea is to set up an environment where the participants receive tangible gifts of service and sacrifice all weekend to simulate a New Testament community and the reality of God’s grace. This is done through acts of kindness, talks presenting different aspects of the Christian walk, meeting physical and spiritual needs, and insulating the participants from outside issues while they are there.
I was involved in numerous renewal weekends over 5 years. One thing that I witnessed consistently was people’s discomfort with being served. Through this experience, God taught me and reminds me that allowing others to serve me is as much a part of His plan as my service to them.
Luke Chapter 10 gives us two parables about accepting service, but many times we do not look at them in that light. What would the story of the Good Samaritan be if the injured traveler refused his help? How would God be glorified in the traveler refusing help and insisting he could manage on his own? The story of Martha and Mary is precisely what the song refers to. Martha is being the hands and feet of Jesus through service, while Mary shows grace and reverence to Jesus.
Service is not gender-specific. There are times when we share it and times when we receive it.
Would you deny a sister in Christ her act of obedience by refusing service?
Grow Anyway 
It is very humbling to be the recipient of another’s service. Always lingering in my heart and mind is that verse, Acts 20:35: In all things I have shown you, by working hard in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”.
I think, for me, I don’t like it when I become the weak, for that is not what I planned or contemplated, but that is where I can be found at times in my life. Who doesn’t love to be the giver and watch, with anticipation, the one we gifted. Who are we to deny that joy, that God given inspiration to another? Who and what we are is simply this, a divine appointment for that other individual.
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