I really am still alive. And the mushrooms ARE growing (photos to follow…) But tonight is the first time I’ve had in a good bit to slow down and catch up on blogs I like to read.
So, browsing and reading tonight, I came across this (from Tim Chester’s blog – h.t. Finding Grace). It said something I’ve tried to express often, about the difference between service and connectedness. (I tried to express it in a conversation today, and did so poorly. I really SHOULD limit myself to the written word, I think…)
Serving and giving of oneself… The two are related, in the best instances, of course. But sometimes we miss the mark when our “serving” convinces us that we’ve “gotten it done” in terms of caring for one another, and when our serving blinds us to the deeper needs of community and fellowship. Here’s how Tim Chester put it:
We think we are enacting grace if we work among the poor, if we serve them. But we are only half way there. It is not really grace because we still act from a position of superiority. We think we are humble when we serve. But we have missed the dynamic that is going on. What we really proclaim is that we are able and you are unable. I can do something for you, but you can do nothing for me. Think how different the dynamic is when we sit and eat with someone. We meet as equals. We share together. We behave as friends. We affirm one another and enjoy one another.
That’s how I wish I had thought to put it, today…
“It is not really grace because we still act from a position of superiority.”
So is God’s grace not grace because He acts from a position of superiority? The conclusion is sound — we need to serve with an attitude of humility — but that doesn’t necessarily demand egalitarianism.
Well, I guess to me the key there would be GOD acting from a position of superiority, which HE has a right to do, and I don’t.
I think, in the spirit in which I understood this, the author has a good point: serving, in terms of “doing stuff for” can be (though isn’t always) an escape from really being involved with deeper needs. Sometimes the giving and doing can get in the way of the opportunities we have for the gospel.
I find it instructive that while Christ washed his disciples feet, he did so in the context of preparing to sit down and dine with them and spend time with them. In every sense, he modeled what it looks like to NOT act from a position of superiority, even when he had every right to do so.
Well said! And thanks for stopping by.
Emily @ finding grace