Serving God (#23)

I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “serve God where you are.” While it’s a great phrase, it doesn’t do much for me in a practical sense. How do you serve God where you work? I really don’t have the answer to that. My hope is that maybe through some shared experiences we can gain insight from each other.

A friend of mine sent me a letter recently. My friend is a teacher. She just started school where she was teaching a new grade and was given some challenging kids. She was stuck. The principal was not going to change. Oddly, her situation is similar to what how many inmates feel about prison. Someone else decides with whom you will live and creates a bunch of ambiguous and whimsical rules that seemingly are only there to annoy the inmates. (One of my favorite rules here is that we are only allowed to put “soiled” clothing in our laundry bags. Who would put clean clothes in there, who cares what kind of clothes we put in there, and who checks to make sure all the clothes are soiled?) My friend’s response to the arbitrary rules she faces is a great lesson about serving God where you are. She believes that God's purpose for her situation is to love the kids, teach them, and show them Christ.

I think this is what being a Christian is about, showing a bit of Christ wherever we are. Love people and show them who Christ is. Obviously, this is easier said that done. The perception of prison is that we all have done something wrong, so we deserve this punishment. I agree with this. Nobody here is innocent, at least not in a moral sense. The truth is God has decided that prison is where I should be with all its ridiculous rules and very little I can do to change things. And just like my friend in her situation where the principal is unyielding, I can either accept my situation and love the people here, or rebel and be angry about the injustice of it all. Unfortunately, I sometimes do both, but I’m slowly beginning to let go of the frustrations and anger and starting to look for and see where God is working here. This is me being a spiritual warrior or super-Christian. God broke me despite my stubbornness. It wasn’t hard, everyone here is hurting, and it’s clear that these people want someone to love them. So, as I began to yield to God, I was able to see where I could serve God here much more easily and that God has a purpose here for me. I have befriended a few non-believers here, some from soccer and another through tutoring. The last time I had almost an equal number of Christian and non-Christian friends was probably in college. As my teacher friend wrote about loving the kids, I too feel that God has called me to love these men. This is not where I want to be. But it is where God has me and I want to serve him.

So, if you are in a job that you hate, you might want to consider a different perspective. Why does God have you there? Think about the people around you. Who around you needs Christ’s love? I don’t think God wants us to evangelize everyone, but if you are honest with God and willing to submit yourself to him, I do believe that He will put in on your heart why he has you where you are and show you those whom you should seek to help.

Jeff