I recently spoke at my alma mater, Ohio Christian University. The message was titled "Living with the end in mind." The overall message is that you want to have such an impact during your life that your funeral is packed and Heaven is fuller for it! One of the points was that if you want to live with the end in mind, look to serve not to be served. Jesus said "the greatest among you will be your servant," and I want to be great!

If you ask me, one of the most useful apps on my phone is the calendar. I can have something that I really want to do, something I know I need to do, or something that is incredibly important. However, if I don't put it on the calendar, there's a good chance it's not going to happen. Life gets busy. Meetings come up. Kids need something or get sick at school. Work takes longer than expected. The phone rings, then something breaks and before you know it, the day is gone, the week is gone, and all those things you meant to do have disappeared into the black hole of busyness.

Serving God and serving people can be the same way.

Most of us don't wake up and decide, “I'm not going to help anybody today.” We don't intentionally decide to ignore the needs around us. The problem is usually not that we don't want to serve. The problem is that we don't plan to serve. We think we'll do it when we have time, when life slows down, or when the perfect opportunity comes along. But let's be honest, life rarely slows down and there will always be something competing for our time.

Jesus said that even He “came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Think about that. Jesus, the Son of God, had every right to be served. Yet He intentionally came looking for ways to serve. He made serving people part of His mission. If we're going to follow Jesus, serving can't just be something we do when it's convenient. We must be intentional about it.

If you wait until all your responsibilities are finished before you serve somebody, you may never get around to it. There will always be another email, another practice, another meeting, another project, another load of laundry, or another thing on the to-do list. Good intentions that never make it onto the schedule often end up exactly where plans that never get written down go… into the black hole of busyness.

Maybe that's why we need to start treating serving like we treat the things we say are important. We put them on the calendar. We schedule the appointment. We make room for it. We protect the time.

What if you intentionally scheduled time to serve this week? What if you put that visit on the calendar? What if you actually wrote down the name of the person you need to encourage? My wife has lists all over our house and that’s why it feels like she has a much better memory! 

What if you blocked out time to help somebody? What if you signed up for that ministry instead of thinking, “Maybe someday I'll get involved?” Because what gets scheduled is far more likely to get done. Your calendar reveals what you have made room for.

And serving doesn't always have to mean adding a huge event to your life. Sometimes intentional service is simply deciding ahead of time that you're going to look for opportunities. Before you walk into work, pray, “God, show me somebody I can serve today.” Before you go to church, ask, “God, who can I encourage?” Before you begin your week, look at your schedule and ask, “Where can I make room for somebody else?”

Jesus didn't tell us to wait until serving was convenient. He showed us what it means to live with a servant's heart. So don't let your desire to serve disappear into the black hole of busyness. Put it on the calendar. Make a plan. Look for the opportunity. Then follow through

Today’s Prayer

Father, 

Thank You for the example of Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve. Forgive me for the times I've had good intentions but never followed through because I was too busy. Help me become intentional about serving. Open my eyes to the needs around me and help me make room in my schedule to meet them. Don't let busyness keep me from doing what You've called me to do.

Show me where to serve, help me plan to serve, and give me the discipline to follow through.

In Jesus' name, amen.