The Art of Serving

Devotional Reading: Matthew 20:20-28

The art of serving.

Wait a minute.... There is an art form to serving?

Wow, this is something I have to really think about! I know there are a myriad of art forms to painting a picture, to sculpting, to delicate embroidery and most every form of crafting there is. But to serving?

But what sort of serving aspires or inspires us to create an higher art form out of it - a Van Gogh or Picasso or Rembrandt of serving??? In our home, serving means serving a meal or a drink three times a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. I hardly believe that such simple things as these can rise to the level of the most amateur of art forms. I mean sometimes we use paper plates and plastic silverware. No masterpiece by any means you can think of.  At Thanksgiving and Christmas we have guests for dinner and serve them dinner.

I can think of several different higher end restaurants me and Sharon have been to, even some of the finest ones we could afford, and the service has usually been at or well above standard. But hardly anything I would commission someone to put on canvas, sculpt out of marble or whatever other medium you can imagine. I would not even think of doing such a thing - probably would never even cross my mind to do it.

I recall our meal times on our honeymoon cruise. Four star dining rooms three times a day and one night a five star banquet on board the luxury liner. What an awesome experience. A fine dinner at a expensive, upscale restaurant yields a rich illustration of the meaning of service. With fine music playing in the background, You are escorted to your table and handed a menu of exotically named dishes you can't pronounce. Exotic foods, drinks, decadent desserts - you would never think of preparing in your kitchens. A waiter or waitress stands off to the side of a table. In formal white tie attire they wait off to the side of their tables, they are observing every move of every member of the dinner party. They are well practiced in their powers of observation.

They flawlessly take your orders, bring you your drinks. When a glass is half full, they are their to fill it back up. They prepare the meals to order and serve them on the finest dinner ware. When the last bite of food is taken off a plate, they remove the plate from the table and bring out the next course. A nearly seamless operation -- a fine tuned symphony of motion for the guests. When a diner gives even the slightest nuanced expression of need, the wait staff quickly discerns the need. They are highly trained to notice - and they seem to notice everything. They comeback frequently to your table to ask how things are. They pour refills of water, sodas, coffee with a big smile on their faces. If anything is not right, they are bending over backwards to make things right. They take their service very seriously and work quite passionately. In this way, I scrumptiously witnessed the art of service rising to the levels of a Van Gogh or Picasso painting.

That is the posture of a Christian who is called to be a living sacrifice for the Lord. We are to be "noticers." We are to be highly trained in interpreting the sign's of the Spirit's work, and we are to step into the picture at every slight prompting. Like the waiter or the waitresses, we are content to stand in the background, completely and intentionally unnoticed, blending in so we we will not interrupt the evenings natural course.

But when our services are required, we are to step momentarily into the picture - unobtrusively and only for a specific purpose. We are assigned to only one table for the entire evening. We exist for its pleasure.     

That's a far cry from the lives of most Christians. We want to serve the Lord and our neighbors, but all too often we have our own agendas. Some of us do not stand in the background very easily, and others of us do not know when to step out of them. We can discern and react to the subtle signals of our spouses, a child's health, a bosses expectations, a rough-running car engine or an aging appliance, but we are clueless when it comes to the subtle working of God. Sometimes, we just learn too slow or tragically, not at all.

Like the wait staff aboard the cruise ship, we need to be highly trained and have the high desire to work. We need to enjoy the art of service - AND IT IS INDEED AN ART FORM -- beautifully and delicately preformed. We need to derive our pleasure  not from seeing the items of our own personal agendas checked off, but from our quick, decisive, yet unobtrusive roles as one's who meet the needs of others. It is our calling, and according to Jesus, it is the way to greatness. We live to serve our God and all of our neighbors and each other. So ... this Thanksgiving and Christmas season be the best servants you can be. Many will be blessed.

God Bless