Serving

I have never worked as a server. What we used to call a waiter. I am just not cut out for the job. I have a physical challenge that disqualifies me from the job. It is not that I can’t spend hours on my feet. I can easily carry the heavy, food laden trays. Balance is not the problem. Jotting down the food and drink orders is easy. It’s my mouth. My smart mouth would guarantee that any job I landed in the food service business would be extremely short lived. As Ron White famously said, “I have the right to remain silent, I just lack the ability.”

Just recently I went out for coffee with a friend who was very clear and specific in placing her order with our server. The more direction she gave the more I smiled. My orders are always simple – bring me a knife and fork, some coffee and some food. I’m good.

I was smiling because I was reminded of a preacher friend I would occasionally go to lunch with. His “use” of the server drove me up the wall. He, invariable, requested that his silverware be replaced with something cleaner. I explained to him several times that water spots were not dirt but were proof that the utensils had, indeed, cycled through the dishwasher. He would order water, room temperature, with ice on the side. Everything had to be neatly arranged on his plate, nothing touching and cooked perfectly according to his wishes. Every dish he ordered had to have something either added or removed. His demands, and they were demands, came none stop. “It’s too cool in here; could you turn up the heat?” “Close the blinds on that window, the glare is bothering me.” “Could I have an extra napkin, please?”  If he were ordering desert, he had to see it first to make sure it met his standards. The man was embarrassing; and irritating; and, worse of all, a bad tipper.

We, of the church, are called to be servers. Jesus was terribly clear that if you want to be a leader in the Kingdom of God, you had better high-tail it to the back of the line. If you want to be a leader, be a server. Christians are called to be helpers, lovers, blessers, healers, forgivers, supporters, givers – servers. Frankly, we are not real good at it. We have become accustomed to being served. We are consumers. We are takers and we tend to continue to be takers and consumers when it comes to faith issues and to doing church. How many of us, when looking for a church, have said that we are “church shopping?” There is a huge consumer concept. When church shopping we are rarely looking for a church that challenges us; a church that has high expectations on our spiritual development; that expects us to tithe; that expects us to be actively involved in outreach and ministry; a church that asks us to do instead of being done for. We look for a church that “meets our needs”; a church that has a good program for our children; exciting worship; good (entertaining) preaching; programs that interest me. We, the ultimate consumers, seek a church that does for us and asks very little in return.

Our intensely entrenched consumer mentality has kept many of us from ever delving deeply enough into Christianity to discover that at its heart is serving. Central to being a follower of Christ is to develop a heart for serving – a Servant’s Heart. It is in serving others for the glory of God and for the spreading of the good news of the Kingdom of God that our lives find meaning and fulfillment. I am working at that servant’s heart thing myself. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to server you. Let me say at the outset, sorry about the smart mouth.

As a follower of Christ, if you haven’t yet discovered this serving thing, at least, please, for the good of the church, be a good tipper.

Copyright © 2013, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved