Devotional Thoughts: Week #3

Practicing Our Significance: Service

Our Foundation
1. We are accepted by God and each other.

2. That acceptance is what sustains us.

3. That sustenance allows us to find our significance.

4. Our significance is what we do to celebrate our acceptance.

5. In that joy, we may get to participate in some great achievements.

Practices So Far
Practicing Our Acceptance - Contemplative Prayer
Practicing Our Sustenance - Confession
Practicing Our Significance - Service

Introduction
So, uh, one of my greatest joys is... um... eating. I love to eat. Maybe you've noticed that some of my favorite memories revolving around tennis have to do with food. Pizza King, senior night meals, going to sweet restaurants like Harvey Hinklemeyer's or the Industrial Revolution after tournaments.

This has always been true for me. Eating together is both delicious and joyful. I don't know, maybe this goes back to laughter filled family meals as a child. Or maybe to my own young sports career where my little league teams celebrating big wins by going to Pizza King. Or memories of high school where my basketball team got ready for big games by going to Pizza King. Or maybe even to date nights, where Courtney and I would eat out after basketball or football games by going to Pizza King.

But my senior year of high school, I decided that I wanted to do something significant for my tennis team. I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to serve God and serve those around me. So what could I do?

Well, I loved eating. So I devised a plan around eating. We had morning practice the first two weeks of August, from 7:00-9:00 in the morning. I decided that each morning after practice, I would take one of the new freshmen on the team out to eat breakfast, and I would pay for their breakfast. We went to the Village Kitchen, one of the smokiest, cheapest, yet most delicious breakfast places and ate eggs and toast, and I learned to know the new members of the team. It was really quite fun. And several of the guys and I became friends beyond tennis.

Significance
Our team verse for many years has been Philippians 4:4-9. Near the end of that verse is this, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice." The last part of that verse obviously has to do with significance. Our significance comes from what we put into practice.

But the first part of that verse is important for significance as well. It say "whatever you have learned or received or heard." It clues us in that significance is not something we do on our own. It's not something that we prove. It's not a way to show that we are worthy. We are already accepted. We are already sustained in joy.

Instead, significance is about taking gifts - the lessons we've been taught, the gifts we've received, the ideas we have heard - and then making them come alive in the world.

In my seventh grade Bible class, the lesson I drive at over and over again is that God LOVES to work in relationship with us. God PREFERS to inspire us and then let us participate in the doing. And that is where our significance comes in. God creates us, accepts us, sustains us, and then gives us gifts. We get to choose whether we use those gifts in joy.

One important note however... even if we don't join in with God and sharing our significance, we don't lose our acceptance. God doesn't suddenly get mad and turn back on us. God is good, God keeps giving, accepting and sustaining.

God just keeps hoping we will lean into our significance. That we will take what we've received and put it into practice.

Service: A Celebration of Significance
"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” - Frederick Buechner

My deep gladness (or greatest joy) might well be eating. And so I tried to use that joy to meet a deep hunger in my tennis team. Not literal hunger, though that may have been helped too, but instead an emotional one. Entering high school in the fall sports season can be intimidating and lonely. I tried to use my joy of food to encourage players who may have felt uncomfortable or lonely or unsure. To show them they had a spot and were noticed.

It wasn't a chore, because at the very worst I got to eat great food. That's the unbelievably awesome way that God has created us. We tend to enjoy serving when we do it out of the gifts God has given.

It doesn't mean there won't be any uncomfortable moments. It was very uncomfortable for me to ask the first freshmen I talked to if he wanted to go grab some breakfast the next morning just so I could get to know him. I am terribly awkward in situations like that. But after that initial uncomfortably, I found the experience one to rejoice over.

I've had some service times that have been more sacrifice than celebration, and those have value as well. But our significance is a celebration of who we are meeting what others need. And when we step into that, it is simply building on the foundation of acceptance and sustenance, and it feels right.

What about you?
What are some things that provide you with deep gladness, with joy?

How could you share those things with others on our team?

Do you notice deep needs around you? Do you notice deep needs on our team? Noticing them is probably a hint that you can help to meet those needs?

How have others shown their significance by helping you with your needs? Have you thanked them?

I'd challenge you to put into practice something this week. Even if its just inviting someone to meet you at Joann's before school or to hit up The Chief after practice :-)