Tag Archives: Serve

To Be God’s Free Agent

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The next part of John Piper’s Challenge to Women is a bit complex when it comes to single women like me. Still, it bears considering:

“That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world. That you not only pose the question: Career vs. full time mom? But that you ask as seriously: Full time career vs. freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom— to be in the employ of someone telling you what to do to make his business prosper, or to be God’s free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God’s business prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or yuppie lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the family and advance the cause of Christ.”

Obviously, I don’t have the opportunity to choose between working full-time and ministry. Whatever else I do and however else I use my free time, I must have full-time employment in order to provide for myself. That said, I don’t define myself by my job. It’s something that I do (and try to do well), but it’s not who I am.

I may “have” to spend 40 hours a week doing what someone else tells me “to do to make his business prosper,” but there are over 100 waking hours in a week. Even considering that some of those are spent on the necessaries of commuting, personal hygiene, and chores, I have at least as many hours to spend as I choose in a week as I do hours spent doing someone else’s biding.

And how do I choose to spend those hours?

I want to be able to use my time and talents to serve God and others. Obviously, I’m still working out how that looks like in my life, and probably always will.

But perhaps one day I won’t need to be employed full-time, having a man to provide the necessities of life. Am I making choices now that will make such a transition easier? This is why I want to work hard at paying off my student debt (though this move has made that difficult), the only debt I have. I’d love not to have to carry debt into a marriage.

I’d also like not to have an expensive lifestyle, something that would hinder me now and in the future. I’m working on ways to live on less, a skill that can reap dividends over the years.

Other Posts in This Series:

A Summer of Growth

Peace, Joy, and Strength

Daily Acts of Love

Women of the Book

Women of Prayer

Deep Thinkin’

No More Frittering

Exploiting Not Paralyzing

Keeping Me Honest

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Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be

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I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it takes to become the woman that God wants me to be — whom I want to be.

I’m only 27.  By most accounts, I can expect to live another 50 years, God willing.  50 years is a long time, and I’d hate to not have grown during that time.  I don’t want to be the same person in 2060 that I am in 2010.

I have examples all around me of women who have walked this earth longer than me.  Some are good examples, aging gracefully (I’m not talking about outward appearance), while some aren’t, with every word they speak dripping with bitterness and self-focus.

I want to be like the first group of ladies.  I’ve done a lot of observing (for this non-observant person), trying to determine how to be on the right path.  While I don’t know all their secrets yet, here are a few things I’ve figured out:

1.  Inward focus will cause you to atrophy.  My life is not about me.

2.  If I want to really know my Bible when I’m older, I need to spend time studying, reading, and memorizing it now.

3.  Submission is always hard, especially in marriage.  But I can practice now by being submissive to the leaders God has placed in my life, and most of all, to God.

4.  To have a mouth that speaks encouraging, gentle, and thought-provoking words, I need to have the thoughts that match.

5.  Being a servant to others can be a joy.  Put others’ needs first…God will care for my own.

6.  I need help.  I need women in my life that will help guide me in truth.

Knowing these things is easy…implementing them is hard.  I want to be a good example for the next generation of women.

I have a long way to go, but God is faithful.

Photo by Gabriela Camerotti

The S Word

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broom - danagravesA few days ago it dawned on me:

“serve” is a despised word.  In fact, you’d think it was a naughty word for how people treat it.

Stay-at-home moms are looked down upon because they’ve willingly forsaken all other jobs in order to take up the job of serving their family full-time.  Janitors and waiters are also looked down upon because they serve others for a living.  No one wants to be the one asked to provide coffee for their boss, because that’s beneath them.  Few take the time to clean-up after others, and if they do, it’s even less likely they’d do it cheerfully.

For all our modern thinking, our attitude today isn’t much different than our historical  predecessors: servants are the lower class.

Yet, there is something special about serving or being served.  Most of us had parents who worked hard to give us what we needed and more comforts and pleasures than we deserved.  We create holidays and special events to honor those who serve us in the military or protect and serve us here at home.  We take notice when a person of leadership takes time to fulfill some menial task for us, viewing it rightly as an act of love.

No matter how great we become in any earthly standard, God calls us to serve others.  Serving isn’t a dirty word.  It’s an act of love.

“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” – Galatians 5:13

Photo by danagraves