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

[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.