Serving others is something I get stuck on.  It’s not that I don’t want to serve other or that I don’t do it, but that I often feel like I don’t have the time to do enough.  I see friends who work “normal” jobs that use their free time to serve others either through the church or outside of the church.

This past Saturday was Compassion Day.  Compassion Day happens a couple times of year and is when the leadership at North Way encourages the congregation to go out and help people in our city.  One of my Ironmen groups discussed a little about how we shouldn’t have to be told by the church to go help people, but it’s something that is not on the forefront of most people’s minds.

I myself feel like I can’t spare much time at all to go and help people outside of what I already do.  This only bothers me because of the attitude that some people have that the majority of the serving I do is at my work place and I get paid for it.  The fact is that my job doesn’t include the time that I volunteer with students.  The other side of that is that I am blessed to get paid to serve others.  One of the guys this morning said that I am serving thousands of people every weekend by enabling them to hear The Word.  I also serve my family by providing for them and spending time with them.

Why is it so hard then for me to get past the perception that some people have that people like me (who work in a church) don’t practice what they preach about serving others?  I know a lot of the staff at North Way participated in Compassion Day, but I was unable to.  I would venture to guess that the average church worker across America is in the same boat as me, having a tough time stepping out of it to serve others in an fashion other than as our jobs require.  Even when I am serving others outside of my church, a lot of those times I am paid in some way because the gifts that God gave me allow me to have marketable skills in areas where I like to serve.  Does that diminish the act of serving in some way?  I don’t think so, but I’m sure some people do.

I don’t think people are really like this, but I get the feeling that some people feel like they are better than me because they “do more.”  i know it’s just Satan trying to shoot me down, but that’s a hard arrow to defend against as a church employee.