Service as Worship
Whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
(Colossians 3:23-24 ESV)
My husband, Zane and I volunteered at a Young Life camp for a week. We were assigned to work in the kitchen where we’d help prepare lunches and dinners for 700 campers and staff. At first, I was disappointed with the assignment; I would have preferred to work outside on landscaping or at the dock taking kids out on boats. But the kitchen is where they needed the most help. Before we had arrived, I half-jokingly said to Zane, “The only thing I hope I don’t have to do is cut up raw chicken.
Turns out chicken was the main ingredient in more than half the meals. We ended up chopping up 800 pounds of the stuff.
On the first day I volunteered to cut carrots. This was my sneaky attempt to avoid the chicken. I was perfectly content to let someone else have that job! And that’s when I knew I needed an attitude adjustment. I came to serve, even if it was a job I didn’t really want to do.
So, I decided to wholeheartedly embrace whatever needed to be done. This seemed to align with the verses in Colossians 3:23-24, a more genuine way of serving Jesus rather then just doing what I was willing to do for Him. By the end of the week, handling raw chicken didn’t bother me. In fact, whenever the servers grabbed the trays of food we had prepared and entered the dining room to the rowdy cheers of hundreds of highschoolers, I felt joy. I knew I had done the work heartily for Jesus, so it was truly a pleasure.
This experience taught me how service, done with a humble and willing heart, goes hand-in-hand with worship. When we serve without grumbling or seeking praise for ourselves, the work becomes worship because we are doing it with the attitude of serving our Lord Christ.
Throughout the Bible we’re encouraged to serve the Lord with our whole hearts. (Joshua 22:5, 1 Samuel 12:24, Romans 12:11) With practice, genuine service can become a natural overflow of an intimate, loving, worshipful life with God. For Jesus, worship and service were always intertwined, functioning in harmony.
Such as in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (Matthew 14:14-21). We have so much in common with the disciples. Even they needed an attitude adjustment. After an already exhausting day, the disciples were sick and tired of serving the sick and tired. So, they approached Jesus and said, “It’s been a long day. This is a hot, horrible place to spend the night and we have no food to feed all these people. They can go into the village and buy food. Send them away.”
But Jesus gently encouraged them to change their mindset and said, “They need not go away, you give them something to eat” (emphasis mine). The disciples obeyed, seemingly without questioning or complaining. Most of us are familiar with the rest of the story. Jesus gave thanks and then miraculously multiplied the fish and loaves, feeding 5000 men plus women and children. It’s possible more than 15,000 hungry people went to sleep satisfied that night. Plus, 12 baskets full of fish and bread were left over, perhaps one for each disciple to have as their own.
I wonder if the disciples fell into bed, bone-weary, but bursting with gratitude because Jesus didn’t send the people away as they had wished. Instead, they did what He asked. They poured their whole hearts into obeying Him and serving. Then they witnessed a miracle.
Most of us serve others daily already. We sort socks from the family laundry, cut crusts off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for picky eaters, listen to an anxious roommate instead of studying, or get assigned a job that’s not our sweet spot. Sometimes serving feels tedious, taxing, or even kind of gross. I never would have imagined cutting up raw chicken would become an act of worship in my life, but it did. Especially when I thought of this act as serving Jesus, not just cooking for campers.
Pay attention to your attitude today as you encounter service opportunities. Remind yourself to do whatever it is you’re doing wholeheartedly, as a form of worshipping Jesus, and be ready to receive the blessings that will come.
If this encouraged you, check out more articles from our Flatirons Spiritual Formation Team for practical tools, encouragement, and ways to grow in your faith and leadership. Click here.