The Temptation of Serving

The Bible calls us to a life of service and self-sacrifice (Mk. 10:45). That is why at C3 we make a big deal of creating service opportunities--tangible ways for people to serve in an effort to impact our surrounding community and build the kingdom of God. And the cool thing about all this is that when people sacrifice their time, money, and energy to serve others, they often begin to experience spiritual growth themselves.

I say "often" because this is not always the case...

There is a temptation that comes with serving. We don't like to talk about it much. But it is almost always present. Perhaps this is the very reason why we avoid discussing it. We instinctively know how pervasive it is in our own lives. The temptation I am referring to is that of resentment. Embedded in an almost every act of service is a temptation for us to become resentful--resentful of the person(s) we are serving and resentful of those who fail to serve alongside us.

Let me give you an example of each to illustrate the point.

I oversee about 70 small groups at our church. One pattern I've noticed among our home group leaders is that they burn out. My wife and I lead a home group and there are times when we feel burned out. It is not a small commitment to open your house to 10+ people each week. But as we have grappled with our burn out, we have noticed that our sense of burn out is often paralleled by feelings of resentment. We open our house to a group of people every week because we believe in the power of community and want to create opportunities for meaningful relationships to develop. Opening our house once a week is really a small sacrifice to make given the transforming power of doing life together with others in the way of Jesus. But we can lose sight of all that, and instead, start to fix our gaze on the burdensome sacrifice we are making. And when our focus drifts consistently in that direction, we get resentful. We start resenting our home group time and even the people in our home group if they show up late or fail to show up at all without calling. Of course, as I mentioned already, our experience here is not unique. My guess is that pretty much anyone who has ever hosted or led a home group can relate. If we are not careful, we can resent those that we are intent on serving.

Every year our church puts on a huge Fall Festival. This is a really fun event that is full of activities. This year we had a couple live bands, inflatables, rock climbing, laser tag, and some amazing food that fed well over 1,000 people. Now, obviously putting on an event of this size and magnitude requires quite a bit of work--planning, organization, set-up and take-down. Thank God for Jalane Sauer who oversees this entire event each year! Anyways, this year I was involved in the take-down and clean-up portion of the Fall Festival. And as I was helping tear down tables and chairs and doing various other tasks, I noticed that I grew increasingly frustrated with those that were still hanging around but were not pitching in to help. I began to get frustrated with those who were not willing to serve alongside those of us who were already serving. My service at the Fall Festival was tainted by an attitude of frustration toward those that were not serving. And, by the way, this is just one example. How many of us have decided to serve our spouse by emptying the dishwasher or something like that, but in the process of performing that task, become resentful of our spouse for not doing that task earlier--and then maybe even resentful of other family members who stood by and watched without pitching in to help!?!

When we succumb to an attitude of resentment during acts of service the transforming power of service is negated by our resentment. And this happens in two ways. First, resentment negates the transforming power that service can have in our lives. Engaging in self-sacrificial service becomes formational in our lives when we experience the joy of simply giving our lives away for the betterment of others and the kingdom of God. But the moment resentment creeps into our service, the transforming potential that service can have in our lives vanishes. The act of service that carried immeasurable transforming potential for my life has now become a source of resentment. Second, resentment negates the transforming power that service can have in the lives of others. Engaging in self-sacrificial service is a powerful testimony to the love of Jesus Christ when we expect nothing in return--including the appreciation of the other. But the moment that resentment creeps into our service, the transforming power that our service could have had on the other vanishes. The act of service that carried immeasurable transforming potential for the other person's life has now been tainted by resentment.

The solution to the temptation of resentment, of course, is not to stop serving. The solution is to serve in the way of Jesus. Jesus gave his life away resentment-free for an undeserving world. And that is the kind of self-sacrificial service that the Bible calls us to replicate (Mk. 10:45).