Service

Jumping to the New Testament again, I’m finally getting around to writing about 1 Corinthians 13. Yesterday I was piling up wood for my dad; we have a wood stove to heat our house and my dad bought a cord and a half thinking that it was a good deal since the shipping was the same for any amount of wood bought. Economically speaking it was a good deal, but physically not so much as I spent three hours out in the cold struggling to find space for countless pieces of wood. As time went on and it got dark and my back, already sore from all the shoveling, got worse I became angry. I admit it was not a pretty picture as I said and did some things I really shouldn’t have. But as I was continuing in my fight against the pile of wood I realized something, I am serving my dad, I am not doing this for money but am taking my time to help him out by piling up a bunch of wood. If I am going to complain or demand compensation or say how bad an idea it was to buy so much then what is the point of my serving him. In fact it would be better to not do anything, at least that way I am honest with him, myself, and God. Too often I feel that we look at doing the right thing as something to get over with or something we have to do. We never have to do anything, we choose to out of love and that is where 1 Corinthians comes in. Paul writes that out of faith hope and love, love is the most important. I never understood that, I always figured faith was on top but now I see differently. If I live life as a Christian and spend all my time thinking about preaching or serving just to get some brownie points up in Heaven then I am worse off than the person who has no faith but still has love. Too often there are people who claim to be Christians yet have no love, they can have all the faith in the world but if they don’t show love to those around them then what is the point? To live a life that is worthy of being called godly you don’t have to wear a cross necklace, pray in school, or only listen to Christian music (while if you feel compelled to that’s fine); you can do all those things and still be far from God. If you put loving others as God intended, and having faith and doing things out of love than that is the key. It doesn’t really matter what you do on the outside, it depends on what your motives are on the inside.