So, what is service? It is an act of helpful activity and a contribution to the welfare of others. It is a broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself. Behaviours such as helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperation.
Helping (assisting others overcome challenges and work-related problems). Sportsmanship (working without whining or complaining). Individual initiative (doing more than expected or required – going above and beyond). Self-development (voluntary actions to better oneself in knowledge, skills, and abilities, for the sake of others or my organisation).
Across all these definitions and dimensions there is a key theme regarding service that emerges: action that is outward-focused. It means I am doing something primarily for the benefit and goodwill of another person or group of people. When I serve, I look outside of myself, beyond my problems, and seek to bring value to others.
On a cold afternoon after a last-minute shopping, a man outside of a pizza shop grabs my attention. Could you spare a pound so I can buy a slice of Pizza? he says, in what feels like a confident and practised tone. I shift from side to side, paralysed momentarily by the choices in front of me. I could easily give him the money, if it truly would help him, that would be no trouble.
As I ponder the choice, my head starts to swim with social media posts and dozens of articles that I’ve read suggesting that this very action might be hurting more than helping. But what problems would I be contributing to by offering this man my money? How did he get on the streets in the first place? How many other people had fallen into this exact scheme already today? How would he spend my money?
Questions fog up my head, I smile politely and keep on walking with my money in my pocket, unsure of how else to respond. The situation I found myself in that day was far from unique. In a world with limitless access to choices, I often find myself too overwhelmed to make a choice (or afraid of doing the wrong thing) and I choose to not choose at all.
The word Service attempts to fill the gap in my language, to express something about the human experience that I can’t quite say with another word. It is the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as my own, populated with ambitions, friends, routines, and worries.
An epic story that continues invisibly around me in which I might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, or as a lighted window at dusk.
This word reminds me to slow down and see the people around me. To recognise the complexity of their lives in the same way I want my own life to have significance. And if I begin to think this way about my daily interactions with one another, this approach can also begin to influence the way I serve. I think it could radically alter the way I do modern-day activities and help my approach more clearly.
I can serve others well when I actively decide to take on the role of a servant. This seems obvious but missing this step can lead to doing more harm than good. It’s easy to unconsciously view myself as the saviour of those that I serve. But, to truly model service I must believe that everyone I reach out to is just as important as me. By positioning myself in this way, I force myself to leave my agenda behind and elevate the importance of each person I am reaching out to.
It’s easy to assume I know what’s best for others and to simply give them that material thing. But, if I seek to serve well, the best thing I can do is take the time to get to know people and honour them with a listening ear. If I skip this step, I make it a lot more about the good feeling I get from helping than I do about actually serving them.
When I listen to others, their needs might surprise me. By simply making the statement, “Let me know how I can help,” I am opening myself up to a world of needs, not just the ones that are convenient or fit nicely into the time I’ve allotted to help. This often requires me to drop my agenda, and it may cause me to serve in ways that stretch me beyond simply where I see myself gifted.
When I’ve listened to the full magnitude of someone’s brokenness, it can often be incredibly discouraging. I have a natural inclination to want to either fix everything or create distance from what I can’t fix. But when I seek to serve others genuinely, I can take comfort in knowing I am rarely the whole solution, that I may be one small part of a much grander plan, and that’s okay.
When I allow myself to be influenced and changed by the people I seek to serve, I create avenues for mutual respect and, ultimately, mutual change. In the same way, allowing myself to be served (accepting a meal or coffee, or letting someone pray for me) is often an incredibly meaningful way to serve someone else. It levels the playing field and communicates to the person I am serving that they have value and that they matter.
The more time I spend examining what it means to serve others well, it comes down to allowing my life to be interrupted. Serving others means making space for their existence and seeing them as valuable and worthy to serve and be served.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. There is no exercise better for my heart than reaching down and lifting others. When I give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. I have not lived today until I have done something for someone who can never repay me.
Focusing on the needs of others has a way of motivating me to do more than I thought possible. I feel the benefits immediately. I become more productive. I find creative solutions to problems. I find strength when I am exhausted. That’s because life supports that which improves the quality of life. When I contribute to my community, I become part of something bigger than myself.
It seems obvious that acts of service help the people who are being served. When I look outside of myself for ways to create value for others, walk with them in times of need, and assist them in finding resources to meet their needs, most times the people that are being helped are better off.
The twist here, however, is that not only are those on the receiving end of the acts of service benefits, but the person also engaged in the service as well as the environment they are operating in are better off as well.