I was just filling in some info on my son’s registration form for CDYC. That is our denominational youth conference held each summer. A new location for the conference this year apparently will offer some new opportunities. Students are given the opportunity on the form to express an interest in a service activity. “Live to Serve” is the entity with whom they will network to make it happen.
Being unfamiliar with “Live to Serve”, I attempted an internet search. Maybe this is a new enough group that they don’t have a website; for whatever reason, I didn’t find what I was looking for.
But, I found some very interesting notions of what it means to “live to serve”.
“Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness.” (David Sarnoff) This is the quote I find at the first website my browser offered me. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Still, it is a little self-centered in that last part.
The next offering is a blog by a college student majoring in art education. “Live.Love.Serve.Just as Christ Does.” That’s a little closer to what I thought I’d find.
In fact, as I browsed through the results of my search, I made this observation: Satan lives to serve, too. There were a few websites that I was afraid to click on–pretty sure I would end up at some brothel or more euphemistic connection in the same world. There were a few rants–people serve lots of causes out there. So, I guess it boils down to who or what one lives to serve.
It’s so easy to live to serve me. But that, ultimately, can be just as much of a dead end–that may be more literal than idiomatic–as people who choose to serve much more malignant causes or masters.
Jesus lived to serve…and He died doing it. That’s a sober thought to ponder during this Holy Week.
Through Changing Eyes 