Serving from the Heart

Where Love Meets Action

By Elizabeth Murphy

My neighbor wanted her children to learn empathy and to experience a world different from their own, so she and a group of other moms made plans to serve a meal at a nearby shelter. After carefully explaining to her wide-eyed children that they would be feeding dinner to some homeless folks, she asked if they had any questions. With a fearful expression and trembling lips her son asked, “Do we have to actually put the food in their mouths?”

Learning to serve is a process. Jesus commands us to love each other deeply and to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms as He provides the strength and receives the glory (1 Pet. 4:8-11). Our part is to go where He would go, see what He sees, and then do what He would do. We were made to serve, but how?

A Right Heart

Service to others begins with loving deeply, as The Message paraphrase says, “As if your life depended on it.” That can only happen when we reach out with the true understanding that we are all alike, bearing the image of God. “Otherness” will be a barrier to the best of intentions. A wise friend once told me to speak these words to my heart at the beginning of every day and before stepping into every act of loving service; I am like them and they are like me. But for the grace of God our roles could be reversed, and I could be the one in need.

Follow Jesus’ example of taking on the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:7). Be curious, listen before you speak, come to an opportunity with questions rather than answers, and be willing to submit to the authority of those in charge. Volunteerism is giving back on your terms, giving to someone; biblical service is about giving from someplace, a heart overwhelmed by gratitude for the gift of God’s undeserved grace. A right heart comes first.