We were walking on the beach in Guatemala. She seemed elated about using her own hands to build a Habitat for Humanity home for a family living in a leaky grass hut. Serving God seemed to be bringing her to life. So I told her that when we got home, she was welcome at the mid-week Bible study class for young adults or to join us in tutoring at-risk kids. “Oh, I don’t know about that…going to church more than once a week might be too much for me!”
Her reluctance made me laugh, but it also reminded me our hesitancy to pour our hearts into God’s heart. What if we are swallowed up by God’s demands to serve? Those of us who claim the label Christian live with the tension of self-care and caring for a brother or a sister in need. How will we find the time to feed the children and get to a deacon meeting? How will we mow the lawn at home and spend Saturday working at the Harverster’s warehouse?
A few years ago we invested five million in our building to keep it standing. But what truly keeps the church standing are people like you who invest your hands and hearts into the church. Without your service, the building is a museum. With you, we become the body of Christ. On Monday, the knitters come, on Tuesday the Green Team plants and weeds, on Wednesday the choir rehearses, on Thursday, the sewers make dresses and the prayer ministry prays, on Friday the funeral guild comforts the grieving, on Sunday the deacons and elders and Sunday school class teachers fill the building with hospitality and hope.
I celebrate the joy you find in serving. An early author and pioneer of our faith wrestled with whether or not to serve and then he prayed to God “Thou has made us for thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in thee.” (St Augustine) My heart brims with joy for all the ways you offer yourself into God’s holy presence. I sense that it brings you not only joy but an awareness that you belong to God. Thank you for taking the risk to serve.
Grace and Peace,
Carla
