Live To Serve
Learning to serve others is difficult for most of us, perhaps especially men. We are often taught to be independent, to go out and get what we want for ourselves.
But serving others seems to be a law of nature that confers huge benefits on the person doing the serving!
Consider our modern free enterprise system. The individuals and companies that serve the most people with goods and services which have the best mix of affordability, quality and delivery are the most successful. You can apply this principle to any free-enterprise organization on earth.
What do these successful companies have in common?
• Amazon
• Fed Ex
• Apple
• Wal MartThey are among the best at providing affordability and quality and delivering it to (i.e. serving) their customers.
In Mark 10 v 43-44 Jesus makes it a clear principle of leadership and greatness:
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
Why it that nurses and fire-fighters is are the most respected occupations? Because they serve others.
It is so easy to get caught up in our busy and sometimes selfish bubble and forget to serve others. Paradoxically this is actually much less likely to get us where we really want to be i.e. in balance, in peace, experiencing joy and fulfilment.
I can tell you in my own experience, I was not originally wired to serve. I am independent and sometimes self-absorbed and often my goals are just that - “my” goals! However I have learned there are wonderful benefits to serving others. Of course I stick to what I am good at, so I don’t volunteer to do flower arrangements at weddings. But I do volunteer my time and my services regularly.
These are the areas I volunteer my time:
• I mentor young people and new traders.
• I teach three half hour classes of Bible in Schools at a local elementary school.
• I run the national office and I’m on the national and international board of a mission and outreach organization.
• I’m on the board of a local youth centre, and I do the accounting and tax for them.The funny thing is I get more out of it in terms of personal satisfaction, than I put into it. Not only that, there are studied and verified benefits of volunteering. The US government organization AmeriCorps found that volunteers live longer, have lower rates of depression and lower incidence of heart disease. Further a longitudinal study found that people over 70 who volunteered for around 100 hours had less of a decline in health and general functioning levels than others who did not volunteer.
Prominent researcher Dr. Stephen Port had this to say:
“There is now a convergence of research leading to the conclusion that helping others makes people happier and healthier. So the word is out - it is good to be good. Science increasingly says so.”
Research also shows that young people who are volunteers are more likely to go on to have higher paying and higher status jobs.
Action Step 5:
If you do not already volunteer and serve others, find a way you can use your skills and abilities to help someone else.
Believe it or not it will benefit you more than them.