There was a time when service was a word to avoid. A young child’s needs have to be provided by others. I wanted others to serve me. My Mother and Father were the first that would meet my needs. At some point, I realized that not only was I to supply my own wants and needs, but God desired me to provide as much as I possibly could for the needs of others.
Paul refers to himself as a bondservant or slave in chapter one, verse one of the book of Romans. The Greek word he uses is Doulos. This designates one who has chosen the life of service to others. In Paul’s time it may have been for financial reasons, family obligations or other forces acting on the servant’s life. Sometimes it was not voluntary.
Because Jesus came as the suffering servant, as predicted in the prophecies, His followers were commanded to take up this task. He lived and died for others. Paul learned that for him to live was Christ. His purpose in life was to give his life to and for others. I have not yet been called to give the ultimate sacrifice as some have, but the calling is to service no matter what.
As a young man, I discovered the calling on my life to be a servant. In more than forty years this mission has been revealed one step at a time. I am still learning exactly what that means. Christ told His disciples to take up their cross daily. Dying to self is difficult to learn. We walk that road slowly and methodically.
Love for others is an outgrowth of our relationship with The Father and His Son. Love is defined for us in the thirteenth chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Church at Corinth. The first attribute listed is patience. Often, we are called to patiently serve others. Many times we may not even know them or like them.
Service costs us. The cost may be time or resources, but always a part of our selves. Christ reminds us that a wise person counts the expense of a project before beginning it. When I accepted His calling, I knew it would cost me. I could not fully comprehend the daily release of who I was for others.
In 1974 my whole life changed when I accepted that call. Since I was a child, I loved to read. When I sold garden seeds one summer, the prize I chose from the catalog was a small printing press. I started my own newspaper with that press when I was ten. Somewhere that press was lost with the chemistry set and most of the other childhood interests. Writing has never been lost.
The University of Missouri accepted my application to the School of Journalism in the spring of ’74, but the fall of that year saw the creative writing major from Southwest Missouri State University transfer to Southwest Baptist College as a religion major. The career I had been preparing for since Junior High School had been dropped. Servanthood was the new life’s journey.
Walk with me as I tell the stories from sixty years and how the next Walter Cronkite became any Charlie walking down the street. Let’s walk the path of Doulos, the servant, together.
Charles (Chuck) Kensinger 