The "Working: Serving" Trap

Before I really get into this post, please take a minute to scroll down and view M's last post. Why?

Cause she's engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woooo! My excitement level is so high about this, and our family just loves her new fiance and we couldn't be happier for them as they plan their life together. Plus, she also posted some great pictures. So if you didn't see the post before this one, now's your chance to skip on down to the bottom of this post and view it for yourself.

Alright, back to the topic at hand.

I've been feeling really convicted lately about how self-righteous I can get about working in a service profession. In fact, my last several jobs have all been in service professions-- teaching, teaching, more teaching and now I'm at a non-profit. And not just any non-profit, but one that directly serves a population that Jesus showed extreme care for and attention to: people with disabilities.

I LOVE my job. I probably love my job more than anyone else loves their jobs. I truly believe that I was made for this work and that the Lord has blessed me abundantly by allowing me to do it. This job truly represents the intersection of my gifts and passions with a huge need in our schools and communities. I love it more than I ever thought I could possibly love a job.

And yet, it's way too easy for me to jump on the "holier than thou" train because of it. Because clearly, I am "the hands and feet" out there in the field while y'all sit in your offices drinking your iced coffees and making two or three times more money than I do. Oh yeah, and being praised by society for climbing the economic ladder and adding value.

My office doesn't even have a color printer and consistently smells like the bathroom it sits next to. Woe is me.

Sometimes it feels like the trade-off for the lack of prestige or money that comes from working in a service profession is this idea (that we secretly internalize) that hey, at least we're better people. We come to believe that the Lord probably loves us more, or regards us more highly, or excuses us from our other obligations as Christians because we believe, in our own minds and hearts, that we sacrifice so much more than others in order to do His work.

Anyone else? Or just me?

What the Lord has been showing me recently is the danger of comparison. What the Lord requires of me is LOVE, all day and every day, regardless of what I've already done or what I view other people have not.

He's also showing me that being faithful isn't a matter of filling a daily quota.

It's become to easy for me to shrug off a whisper from the Lord with the excuse of, "Haven't I already given enough? I spend all day serving the "least of these!" And the answer is always no.

Regardless of the hours we work or don't work, the money we make or don't make, the people we touch or don't touch, the Lord's answer is always "do more." And he promises that he will give us the resources to do so.

So, that's what I'm working on this week-- I hope this will challenge some of you who also work in service professions to analyze your own hearts.

Serve on, fellow servers.... no matter where the Lord has planted you professionally.