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Teach
Me to Serve
by
Major Dieudonné
Louzolo
To serve means to be of help or assistance to a person, a
community or a cause. Another meaning is to meet the needs of.
Imagine a welcome meeting. The newly appointed officer comes
in with her officer’s epaulets on
a restaurant waiters dress instead of the formal white
shirt. In her address she says:” as this waiters dress means,
I have come to serve, not to command.”
So imagine again the same officer just some months
later, proving to be as cruel as ancient French Colonists,
even more. Isn’t it wiser just to serve and let people realize
through your deeds that you have come to serve instead of
proclaiming it in the very start? Don’t we need just to serve
and not to tell our soldiers or our people that we are servant
leaders?
Leaders
of God’s army we really need to learn from Jesus, the Servant
Head of the Church.
Servants
in a privileged position
As God’s servant we are serving the Head of the Church
who dared to call us friends and no longer servants. “I
no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know
his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for
everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to
you, “John 15:15.
We are serving not a boss, but a friend who loves us
all the time. Proverbs 17.17 reads:
“a friend loves
at all times… “
We are serving a Master who is watching over night and
day
(Psalm 121; 2 Chronicles 16. 9a; Romans 8.34).
Serving
God through others
We are serving God by serving our neighbor.
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To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of
the yoke;
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To set the oppressed free and break every yoke;
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To share your food with the hungry and
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To provide for the poor wanderer with a shelter;
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To cloth the naked ;
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Not to turn away from your own flesh and blood.
Isaiah 58.6-7.
Serving God
joyfully
We are serving God by serving our neighbor. Psalm 51.14. Some
officers have already lost the joy of their calling. What we
experience in the ministry may sometimes make us loose the joy
of our calling.
Serving God
with tears of love
Imagine that those you are serving need your failure;
they are struggling for you to fall down.
Jesus washed the feet of disciples who were about to
deny him or even to plot for his death.
John wrote:” Jesus now showed them the full extent of
his love” (John 13. 1) before he washed their feet. Officers
sometimes find themselves serving in a hostile environment, or
serving hostile leaders, or hostile people. We cannot serve
them as we should, if we do not let Jesus fill us with the
same full extent of his love. Anyway, we have to serve as we
are saved to serve.
We may even do it with tears provided we complete our
calling to serve the Almighty through them. David sang:”
those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying
seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves
with him, “Psalm 126.5-6.
Our Lord Jesus said: “blessed
are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”,
Matthew 5.4.
In John 21: 15-17, before Jesus left his lambs and
sheep to Peter’s care, he first of all asked him if he loved
him. Jesus wanted
first to make sure that Peter will minister unto them out of
love. Without love our service is nothing but a chore.
Love those you are serving and love the Lord whom they
belong to.
Oh
Jesus, Great servant, fill us with the full extent of your
love, so that we may serve like you, no matter if we should do
it with tears!
Serving
God without judging His people
Elijah thought he was the only person left who was
still true to God. He thought he was only one who remained
faithful. He
said:”
I have been very
zealous for the Lord
God Almighty . The Israelites have rejected your
covenant, broken down your altars , and put your prophets to
death with the sword . I am the only one left , and now they
are trying to kill me too.” 1 Kings 19:10.
He was so self-confident that he labeled all the
Israelites as if he were as omniscient as God.
Yet, he did not know that there still were seven
thousands
Israelites “whose
knees have not
bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him”,
1 Kings 19:18.
So, as servant of the Almighty, we just need to serve His
people without judging them because whatever our cleverness,
wisdom, education, race, spiritual maturity, we are not God
who knows everything about His own people.
Paul said: “
Who are you to judge
someone else’s servant ?” and “You,
then, why do you judge your brother ? Or why do you look down
on your brother?” Romans 14:4, 10.
Finally let us borrow these challenging words from our song
book and pray : “ Here
at the cross in this sacred hour, here at the source of
reviving power, helpless indeed, I come with my need; Lord,
for Thy service, fit me I plead”.
SASB 440.
Oh Lord, teach us to serve.
Major Dieudonné
Louzolo
Training
Principal, Congo-Brazzaville Territory
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