Namaste Every Day

I love serving others, no matter how big or small the service is. Each day it is important to continue living a life of service. Serving others can be done through week long mission trips or serving dinners at a homeless shelter but can also be as simple as opening a door, picking up trash, greeting someone with a smile, or lending a helping hand to a neighbor. This next year I am embarking on a big way of serving others by traveling half way around the world to foreign land, Masealama, South Africa. As I say this, I wonder if this really is a big way of serving people? Sure I am going to be gone for an entire year and will be representing something much bigger than myself, the Evangelical Church in America, my home church, and all of those who have and continue to support me, but will I not continue doing the things I do every day here? It is important to continue doing the little things that are a part of my daily life. Therefore, no matter how big this adventure is, it breaks down into doing little things every day, in a big way. This way of life is important because Jesus was a servant, serving everyone, the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the lifeless, every day. Jesus is who I attempt to model my life after, for He is the greatest servant of all.

A few years ago I read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. At one point in Shane’s life he called Mother Teresa on the phone and asked if he could serve alongside of her. While working in Calcutta, India with the lepers, Shane kept hearing the word, “Namaste.” He asked one of the lepers why they kept saying this word to him, the leper explained that namaste means, “I honor the Holy One who lives in you.” They saw Jesus in him. This amazed me. In my service, whether it is today, yesterday, tomorrow, or six months from now while in South Africa, I hope the people around me see Jesus in me and working through me, through the little things I do every day.

Please join me on this not so every day, every day journey. I may not know what is to come, but He does and that I am content with.