Be Served

There are two sides to service. We hear about one side, the serving others part.
This is about the other side. The being served side.

I am a religious person. A woman of Christian faith. So, this post will be in the context of that faith.

I have heard all my life about trying to be like Jesus. Serve as he does. Be kind as he is kind. Reach out to others. See the need and fulfill it. I believe in service. I believe serving others helps make my world bigger, opens my heart, and feel love for those around me.

I also believe that much good has happened when I allow others to serve me. It makes my world bigger. It opens my heart. It helps me feel love for those around me.

There is a beautiful story in Luke of a woman who came into Jesus and washed his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her own hair, kissed his feet with her lips, and rubbed oil on them.

Jesus let her wash his feet. He could have washed them himself. She used what she had, and he allowed it. She had tears. She had hair. So, that's what she used. Then, she used expensive oil. He allowed that, too.

He didn't say,"I would rather you didn't use your tears, or hair." He accepted the gift.
He didn't say,"Save the fine oil for yourself." He accepted the gift.

I think it is hard to accept service. It is hard to admit we can't do it all on our own. Why? Why is it so hard to admit that we aren't capable of doing everything on our own? Why is it hard to admit that we are limited? I don't know why. But, I think it is part of being humble is to accept love from others. Oh, did I say love? We were talking about service. Well, that's what I meant. That's what service is.

Then, there is another part of the story about the woman and the feet washing. After she washed Jesus's feet people criticized him. Don't you know she is a KNOWN sinner? As though no one else at the dinner table was a sinner. Jesus told them the story of the debtors. The one who had the most debt loved the person who forgave the debt the most. Then Jesus did something. Something. A thing that I think is so important when we are serving and being served. Jesus forgave the woman who served him.

Forgiveness.

This is the part I'd been missing. Forgiving in our service. We are all so human. Our service is imperfect. Our capacity to be serve is imperfect. But, we can forgive. All of it. We can let the love of the service come into our hearts and forget how the dinner someone brought us was too spicy for our kids to eat, and the Bishop of our ward didn't greet us on our first Sunday in a new ward, or the lesson in Sunday school wasn't framed the way we wanted it. We can let love fill in the gaps perfectly.

That's what Jesus does for me.