To Serve Each Other

Which group do you fall into?

1) I go to church on Sundays because I am refreshed by the songs, the sermon, and seeing my friends.

2) I like going to church on Sundays, but only if everyone is in their 'Sunday best', and all children are in another room so my worship time is not interrupted.

3) I'm a parent with children under the age of five, and going to a church service is so tiring sometimes that I'd rather just stay home.

4) I look forward to going to church services because I want to serve those there who need an extra dose of love and care.

I don't like to group people into general categories, but I made the list above to make a point. Hopefully, you didn't find yourself in category #2. But we all have at least one foot in category #1, because we often fall into habit of going to church on Sundays to be served, not to serve. And I don't mean a preoccupied kind of serving, where we forget to be Mary because we are too busy being Martha. I mean serving by having our eyes and ears open to the needs of others. How often do we want to just fall on our knees and weep, but instead we smile because that is what people expect us to do? How often are we on the flip side, expecting others to be happy and smiling, when we really should be expecting a room full of broken people, all needing God's healing, coming together to serve each other? But we forget this. 

Last night, I read a mom's humble confession to losing her cool at church, to being angry for the stares and comments she gets when her children are not on their best behavior, to needing more grace and love on Sundays. 

And I too have had my experiences of going to a service, only to be stopped at the sanctuary door and asked to go to another room with my infant. Or the times when my child makes noise, and my cheeks burn red as I avoid the eyes turning to see "Who's kid is that?!" Or the days when I want to let the tears fall, but I don't want to show people my puffy eyes and runny make-up. How sad that the one place where we should experience the most grace and love is sometimes a place of shame and guilt.

Now, this is not meant to be a finger-ponting session. This is a reminder, a lesson learned, a gentle admonishing at worst. It is a chance to start a new habit, one that my husband and I have been practicing, to go to a Sunday service praying that God will lead you to people who are broken. Expect that people had just gone through a difficult week. Ask if they need prayer, even if they smile and say, "Everything's good." Find just one person, and commit to praying for that person for the whole week. Go to serve, not to be served.

And the best part of this habit is that even if you are the mom who is so tired, you'd rather just stay home (which is how I feel half the time), you can still serve-- the visitor who is also stuck in the nursing room, the young teen who needed a smile and a listening ear, the widow who needed a hug from a toddler. And if we really are serving each other, God can meet all our needs.

And another thing for those in category 3, the mom I mentioned above also wrote a letter to parents with young children, to encourage us and herself when we are wondering, "What's the point of going to Sunday service?" It's an uplifting note, because it reminds us  why Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Mark 10:14 NIV) There is a place in the Kingdom for ALL of us.