Serving for the right reason

Service is quickly becoming a buzzword in the 21st century.

Political candidates are all over it. Reality shows are based upon it. Big corporations want their brands associated with it. Students are given trips and scholarships based upon it.

It seems like everyone is infatuated with the idea of service in 2008.

My question is, are we interested in service for the right reason?

Does the love of Jesus Christ compel us to love our neighbors as ourselves or is our idea of service based on what it can do for us and how good it can make us feel?

Last Tuesday night was a tragic night in Tennessee. Thirty-one people were killed in a particularly vicious tornado outbreak in our state, including seven people in the tiny community of Castalian Springs.

Castalian Springs is about 25 miles north of my home in Mount Juliet, and I knew when I heard about the tragedy the Holy Spirit was prompting me to get up there and find a way to help.

So, I loaded up my truck with tools and spent a day in Castalian Springs. The complete devastation amazed me, as did the outpouring of volunteers. Brian, a man who lost his home in the storm, said he thought that at one time there were as many as 350 volunteers on his property helping him clean up what was left of his home and belongings. That’s service today. Everybody seems to want to help.

As great as that outpouring was, it was also troubling to me as I worked in the area. There were too many camera-bearing, sightseeing enthusiasts, people who weren’t as interested in working or speaking a kind word to the victims as they were interested in taking photographs or video to put on their MySpace pages. They were not unlike the storm chasers you see on weather programs, who seem to be obsessed with the power of tornados without understanding their impact on individual human lives.

I saw one group of “volunteers” posing in the wreckage of a family’s mobile home, while the homeowner stood no more than 10 feet away, with bruises and shock covering his face. They walked right by him without speaking a word of kindness or acknowledgment of his loss. They weren’t much interested in working either as they walked passed piles of work on their way to the refreshment trailer.

Then, there is the other end of the spectrum, the people like me. They are so obsessed with the work to be done that they forget the people affected. You can call them “Marthas.” They will work from sunup to sundown clearing debris and do anything required, but they don’t see the people involved. Jack, a retired man in his 60s who I met in Castalian Springs, travels from natural disaster to natural disaster as a volunteer who helps clear debris and restore order. He’s a great guy, but he doesn’t do people. Whenever he found a picture in the wreckage or needed direction from the homeowner, he asked someone else to make contact with the homeowner. With him, it’s more about the work than the people.

I learned an important lesson about this early in my day at Castalian Springs. We were initially assigned to a zone that really didn’t have much work left to complete. Instead, I spent some time with Brian, Nancy and Neil, all homeowners who lost all of their material possessions. They didn’t need any physical help. They just needed someone to pause long enough to listen to them tell their stories. They needed someone to sympathize. Mostly, they just needed someone to be there with them. I usually miss that. This time, God made sure I got it.

There are plenty of God’s people who get it right every time, like the people of Cragfront Baptist Church, just outside of Castalian Springs. They have been preparing and serving thousands of meals to those affected nonstop for a week.

One of the ladies of the church was quoted by the local newspaper, when asked why they have been working around the clock to help those affected.

“They need us,” she said. “If you really believe Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you need to follow His commands. He told us to love our neighbors, take care of them and make sure they know He died for them.”

She gets it. Serve others in the name of Jesus Christ and make sure the people you help know that it’s not about you. Make sure they know clearly—it’s all about Him.