Yesterday the top leaders of Montreal met to conduct their monthly service meeting. The evening was riddled with the same elements that made a routine service meeting: agenda items unrolling one by one, the sound of the occasional phone alarm from timekeeper and clacking on the keyboard care of the note taker. Business as usual, because Mission entails alot of work. That evening, however, the dreariness became unusually more felt leading our one of our couple coordinators to exclaim “Man, we really got to find time to chill!”
Finding the Joy. With so much being asked of us in service, it is funny sometimes how easier it is to notice our being poured out (energy, time, emotion) and completely miss how much the Lord is wanting to fill us up.
The saying goes “the reward for good service is…more service”. I believe this saying is not a a challenge to do more for the Lord, but rather to recognize that service is but an excuse for the Lord to love us. The more we servencounter, the more occasions we get to witness the Lord at work.
Pope Francis is constantly reminding us of the culture of Encounter. Do we see Christ extending His hands to us each day? Do we recognize Him leading us through the most difficult of our tasks? Do we notice His face in the people with serve/serve with? Recognizing Jesus and responding to Him is what makes the difference between “successful” (and ultimately draining) service life and a “spirit-filled” one.
