Choices to Serve

The news and political operatives are buzzing with ideas and thoughts about what we ought to do in the election. Bush vs. Kerry. Who will be president? The two seem quite different, yet when you really listen, they often sound very alike.

I'm glad I live in a land that allows choice and I am glad I am an American who does not take that choice for granted. I've already walked into the polls and done my voting. I've participated in this great experiment called democracy and I am praying that when the election is all said and done that it will truly be all said and done. It seems as though the days of a gracious loser are long behind us. Already each side has gathered their lawyers and lobby groups to protest the results no matter their outcome. How sad. Why can't we just vote, live with the vote, and know that the person with the most votes (either public or electoral college or both) won the race.

But elections are not the only thing we have to make choices about these days. Each day we have to make tons of choices that radically effect our lives and those around us. Will this day be a day we choose to walk in obedience to a Higher Calling or will it be a day that we choose some lower voice, some lesser way; one that pleases the flesh and fulfills the moment, but leaves us empty and longing for more of something?

The Bible seems to understand the dilemma that we face with our choices. It says that we are to choose today whom we shall serve? That is question that strikes at the heart. Who will we serve today? That's not quite the "American" way to think about life - serving, but it is the kind of life that radically changes the world we live in. Just think what our world would be like if everyone today went out to work or school or to whatever they were going to do and simply served. They didn't think about how much money they could make, who would notice their work, how much power or influence they could wield, but simply served the needs of those around them? What a different day this day would be.

Jesus seemed to live out that kind of servant life. He asks us to "follow" and I can't help but think that that following involves serious serving. If we take it as serious as He did, it is serving humanity even at the expense of our own life. Indeed, "greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend."

... An army of servants - what a seemingly powerless but truly powerful group. That is a choice I want to make today and everyday! I want to serve.