Bulletin

A Lesson in the Joy of Service
David R. Ferguson

On a recent Wednesday evening my eight year old son, Damien, who had the two prior Wednesdays led the singing during our mid-week Bible study with the assistance of his father, went about happily and busily preparing the selection of the songs and jotting down notes for himself to remember when to call on one of the men for prayer, and who he would ask. He concluded this task just before the appointed time to begin, eagerly awaiting for his moment to do his part to help out in our gathering. But just as he was about to get up to direct the congregational singing one of the elders, who was making the announcements, began leading the singing himself. He did not realize that Damien had wanted to do this. Had he known he would have been delighted to have Damien help out in this manner. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently forgotten to tell him of Damien's desire.

I looked over at my son as we were singing the first song and I noticed that he looked very sad and try as he might to prevent it from happening a single, solitary teardrop had trickled from the corner of his eye. I asked him what was wrong, and he informed me that he was sad because he had wanted to lead the singing!

As I sat there and placed my arm around my son's shoulder to comfort him, I could not help but feel a sense of good will for my son as I thought to myself, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could recapture the desire of youth and want to do our part to serve the Lord?" My son had looked upon leading the congregation in singing as a thing of joy, and an opportunity to help and serve others. I was reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 19:4, "Let the little children come to Me. Don't stop them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these children."

How many of us view our own Christian life of service as an opportunity of joy, privilege, and pleasantry, or do we instead view it as a bothersome drudgery? By the numbers of individuals that are consistently missing from our midst from even meeting with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ each Lord's day, it would seem that too many of us today regard the assembling of ourselves together as a toilsome and troublesome undertaking, both vexing and disturbing, and not as an opportunity to edify and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4: 10, "Each person should use the gift he has received to help other people, like a good manager of the many kinds of God's gracious love." Let us all learn a lesson from Damien. Let us learn that true joy comes from seeking what God is doing around you, seeing the world through His eyes, and picking up on His delight in us as His children. I pray that the next time you are not able to use the gift that God has given you that you, too, will shed a tear of sadness.