Input, Stephanie!

[qos]

I'm writing in haste this morning, and don't have time to get my thoughts down in a coherent fashion, so I'm going to shamelessly ask all of you for your thoughts and observations, so I can read my email and get more grist* for my inner mill/black box:

What does it mean to you to "serve"? Does rephrasing to "serve in a spiritual sense" make a difference in your answer?

How do you use your gifts to serve?

What does servant leadership look like to you?

Given what you know of me, in what ways can you imagine me using my gifts to serve? (If you can imagine such a thing at all. . . )


* Yes, poliphilo, I do hope you will contribute your wisdom. ;-)

Comments

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

What does it mean to you to "serve"?

For me, the definitive statement is the "Glass Tubes Speech" given by William H. Macy in an episode of Sports Night (season 2, episode 3: "Cliff Gardner"). I recommend seeing it in the original (available via Netflix; the episode in question appears on Disk 4). (If you're unfamiliar with the series, watching the preceding episode "Something Wicked This Way Comes" might be a good idea, to get a little context; episodes are about 23 minutes long, so it's not a big investment of time.)

I suppose it boils down simply to "Make yourself useful," but it loses a great deal in translation.

Does rephrasing to "serve in a spiritual sense" make a difference

I think it may be a distraction to spend too much time thinking about different spheres and types of service. When you make lunch for The Child, are you being of service "in a spiritual sense?" Sure. Or not. What difference does it make? Isn't all service spiritual?

in what ways can you imagine me using my gifts to serve?

Ripley: I feel like kind of a fifth wheel around here, is there anything I can do?
Apone: I dunno, is there anything you can do?

[qos.livejournal.com]

I suppose it boils down simply to "Make yourself useful," but it loses a great deal in translation.

Interesting that you should invoke the word "uses." For Emanuel Swedenborg, "uses" were a central ehtical concept. He urged people to be aware of their "uses" -- what they did in the world. Good "uses" were motivated by love, and led to the increase of love and the welfare of others. Someone who was of no "use" was clearly lacking in love, and thus not an authentic Christian.

Isn't all service spiritual?
Perhaps. . . I'm coming to these thoughts embarrassingly late in life. I can say with reasonable assurance that I've tried for most of my life to have "good uses" -- but I've always been mostly self-centered. Polite, considerate, but self-centered. Trying to sort out the different meanings of "service" -- separating a higher level of uses from my "be a nice person" attitude, and that from becoming a follower or martyr (not likely, but that, unfortunately, is part of my gut reaction to "serving") is proving more complicated than I would have expected. It's also entirely possible that I am thinking too much and making it too complicated.

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

I have no idea!

The closest I can get is the notion of stepping back from my own purely self-centered interests and asking (often of course it's pretty intuitive/vague) what is the "bigger" thing to do here? What does compassionate but strong God ask of me here? Love others as myself love God. Yeah. Maybe don't rely on thinking too much for your answers, it's also an intuition and heart thing.

[qos.livejournal.com]

That's a helpful response, Barry. Thanks. I especially like the suggestion that it's an "intuition and heart thing". My default tactic for addressing any issue is going at it with my head, and I need to open up my heart and intuition more, especially with issues like this.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I thought in these terms.

The idea of service comes out of a hierarchical society, One in which the master-servant relationship is normative.

Can we talk about service and it not have connotations of subservience?

I'm just not happy with the language. I don't want to be anybody's servant. Nor do I want to be anybody's master.

I would rather replace it with a language of co-operation- of partnership.

Servant leadership? What does that mean? Can it be anything more than a self-deceiving pose? The Pope calls himself the "servant of the servants of God", but in what real sense is that autocratic old man anybody's servant? He knows what's best for us, he gives the orders. To call him a servant is just spin.

Sorry, these are fragmentary and largely negative. Please come back at me

[qos.livejournal.com]

These are great ideas, Tony. I like the idea of re-casting the concept as partnership, and I've always thought it a terrible irony that the Pope even pretends to be a servant. I can imagine him washing someone's feet for ritual purposes, but not truly acting in a way that took the concept beyond the metaphorical.

My friend athenian_abroad used the term "useful," which resonates with Swedenborgian theology and ethics: acting from love in a way that contributes to the increase of love and the welfare of others, and I like that too.

[rocket-jockey.livejournal.com]

You've asked several interesting questions: what is the nature of service? how do people see themselves in service? and is there necessarily a distinction between "service" and "spiritual service"?

For practical purposes your definition of "serving" as "being of use" is reasonable: if one is hindering, one is definitely not providing any sort of service!

Being "in service" can take any number of forms. Volunteer work for a social cause is one way. Raising children is another. Choosing a profession or job that can affect people's lives or helps shape the world they live in.

In my case, I volunteer to teach seminar classes and have been a tutor. When I've had the luxury of choice I've usually chosen to work in fields that have some direct link to concrete aid in people's well-being or promote ideas and attitudes that I feel are beneficial. None of the things I do or have done make huge changes to the world, but they do make smaller changes in the lives and personal "worlds" of the people that they touch.

As for whether the two kinds of service are congruent - they can be if you choose them to be. All endeavors can be consecrated or dedicated or promote a spiritual path for the practitioner and often for others, as well.

One example of this that comes to my mind is a sofer, or Jewish scribe. Sofrim follow a strict spiritual discipline when they are working on a Torah scroll. The day begins with a ceremonial mikvah, followed by preparing the ink, the pen, and the hide. The sofer meditates upon the words as he writes them, says prayers to God to bless the scroll whenever he writes one of the Lesser Names of God, and repeats the mikvah and prayers whenever he has to write one of the Greater Names of God. When he is finished, the scroll goes into the Ark at a synagogue and becomes a part of the spiritual center of that congregation.

The connections don't have to be so obvious: there can be spiritual aspects to any endeavor. Training bonsai is meditative for both the trainer and those who view it, baking bread is satisfying both in the act of making and in the acts of sharing and eating. The spirituality can be self- or other-focused depending on the state of mind, but one needs to approach the task mindfully, purposely, deliberately, listening to the soul much as one might during a ritual or mditation.

[qos.livejournal.com]

These are helpful ideas and insights. Thanks!

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

You ask a tough question, o queen.

The concept of 'service' is quite fuzzy, and I'm not always sure that I agree with it or like it. But I've been thinking about this issue, for myself, for a long time.

I want to serve.. the ideas that come into my head, my passions. For the last 15 or so years, I've strongly felt that all of my experiences, knowledge and passions form a pattern of sorts, a negative space. I feel like I'm a sword, having been forged, for a particular subtle purpose.
And so when these ideas come, I want to be their knight, their perfect vehicle, to serve the fully.

You know what I'm talking about?

As for yourself, I can only say -- do what you do. Keep searching, keep going down that spiritual quest, investigate shamanism and everything else that arises.
I think the highest thing you can serve is your Self, and while that might sound weird and, well, 'selfish', I really believe that if you listen carefully, you'll see that higher powers (whether gods or Ideas) are trying to flow through you. So serve them.

[qos.livejournal.com]

You know what I'm talking about?

I do. . . although I must admit I hadn't thought about it in quite those terms before. I like the way you put that.

Thanks!