Through Your Eyes

What does it mean to serve others? Sound obvious? But it really isn't. It's more than just meeting a physical need. Mowing a lawn or taking a meal to someone are certainly servant acts, but there's another level of service. It's best displayed when we serve people by taking the time to understand them and then bend over backwards to relate to them.

...I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, non-religious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized--whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ--but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. (1 Cor. 9:19-22 Message)

Why aren't believers and churches influencing more people to Christ? My observation is that the process breaks down right at this very point. Sure, we want to see people come to Christ. We put programs in place to attempt to do that. We badger our neighbors to come to church. But here is where things are getting hung up--rarely do we take the time to see things and experience things through their eyes, much less care enough to adjust the way we do things so that they can really relate. We haven't begun to serve them at the highest level. Imagine the flood of new believers we might harvest if we did!

I hear believers blaming the unbelievers for their lack of interest or their preoccupation with entertainment, or blaming scandals for giving God a bad name. It's easy to blame. It's difficult but godly to serve. And that is where the power is--the power to step inside someone else's experience and get a different perspective. The power to grow and learn and develop the ability to build relational rapport.

The bottom line is, we can do a whole lot better. We haven't yet learned to really serve like Jesus did. He stepped into our world and put on our shoes and took the time to see what we see, to feel what we feel. No wonder his approach was so compelling to people.

Lord, make me a servant. Make me like you. Amen.