Serve With Love
John 13:1-7
13 It was just before the Passover Festival.Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
***FOR THE TIME BEING WE WILL NOT BE STREAMING OUR SUNDAY WORSHIP GATHERINGS***
I was looking out at the fresh fallen snow that the front of my bus was buried in and wondered how I was going to get out of this predicament with the 40+ passengers that were sitting in their seats with confusion on their faces. The students and chaperones on the bus were doing a choir tour to the churches and nursing care facilities in Northern Minnesota. My job was to get them there safely. I was in a moment of humiliation knowing that my attempts to turn this bus around had caused us to become stuck in a snowbank. No matter what I tried, I could not free the bus from this slippery snow. I needed some rescuing.
Do you sometimes find it hard to accept help?
I was in a situation where I had no choice but to look for help in order to get this group of students safely home from this trip. As I sat holding onto the steering wheel in frustration, one of the chaperones came up and said, "I know someone who can help us out, I'll give them a call." From that point on, it was as if I found myself watching a movie where I was just one of characters.
The person called his friend who knew the tow truck driver in the area and would be here shortly. One of the chaperones came up to me and offered thanks for my willingness to drive and simply said, "this could happen to anyone. You've done a great job keeping us safe." The choir director smiled and reminded the students that even though we might be stuck, we still had heat! When the tow truck arrived, the driver enthusiastically hitched us up and pulled us out. When I tried to offer to pay he said, "No need to. Someone has already taken care of this!" The example all these people demonstrated me the joy of serving out of love and impacted me greatly in that moment.
All of us will find ourselves in situations where we can help another in need. Asking the question, "what can I do in this moment to show genuine care", is a mindset that flows out of those who are being transformed by the Spirit of God. We will also find ourselves in those moments we get to accept other people serving us at our points of need as well.
I'm excited to serve together with as we journey together in walk with Jesus!
Grateful,
Pastor John
Free BLESS ebook: https://covchurch.org/evangelism/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2017/02/Discover-Your-Mission-Now-by-Dave-Ferguson.pdf