“Serving Beyond Ourselves” sums up quite nicely November’s focus on the Habit of Serving. When we talk about serving in some way or fashion, we no longer focus primarily on ourselves, but beyond…we live and serve beyond ourselves. And I believe that if we are serious about being disciples of Jesus who came “not to be served but to serve and gift his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) then we can’t do anything else but serve and live beyond ourselves. Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life says it so well:

You were put on earth to make a contribution. You weren’t created just to consume resources –to eat, breathe, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life. While many best-selling books offer advice on how to ‘get’ the most out of life, that’s not the reason God made you. You were created to add to life on earth, not just take from it. God wants you to give something back. (Page 227)

It’s exciting to think in terms of this kind of living… intentionally making choices and decisions in life that add to life, not subtract. There are many who act as if they are here only to gratify and meet their own needs and wants. What’s more, there are environmental, economic, justice,
and moral problems and issues which are so difficult and complex to solve, that if we don’t have more people, and specifically Christians making a concerted effort to focus beyond ourselves, then we will consume and consume, and consume some more until we reach a point of no return and face a disastrous future. It’s refreshing to admit, but the older I get the more I want to make a difference in the world. I don’t know how many more years the Lord will give me, but when I read a Bible verse like: “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life,” I hear God calling me to a WAY of life…a way of living beyond myself. I want to do everything I can to make a real difference. In a hundred years, no one will care that I bought and cared for a home in Andover, Minnesota. I’m sure that in a hundred years, no one will know the hours I put into my gardens or the hours I spent in reading my science fiction books or even all the time and money I invested in my pastoral library. But I do believe that the time I have invested in Jesus’ name to help care for others, tell them about God’s love, and listen to people in crisis will bear all kinds of fruit which will make a real difference now as well as in a hundred years. During this month, I would ask you to do several things as we focus on SERVING…choose one or two:

• Make a real effort to attend worship and hear some inspiring messages about serving.
• Sign up for our culminating Servant Event – Feed My Starving Children on November 20th & 21st.
• Pick up a Feed My Starving Children M&M Candy Tube and fill it with quarters.
• Choose one person at work, school, or in your neighborhood that you can serve in a significant way.

And may you join me in praying for the Lord to teach us all about “serving beyond ourselves!”
In Him,

Pastor Mark