Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Last weekend the youth had a discipleship weekend where they studied and practiced some of the spiritual disciplines that we've been learning about on Thursday nights.

On Saturday morning they went out for service projects -- cleaning windows, planting flowers, and pulling weeds.

I spent some time with them on Saturday afternoon and heard from members of all three service groups (window-cleaning girls, flower-planting boys, and weed-pulling boys) what a great experience it was. Some things the kids noted were that

- it felt good to help someone
- they were able to meet people they'd seen before at church but didn't really know
- the people they helped really appreciated being helped
- they were encouraged by the responses of those they'd served, so that they walked away remembering smiles or kind words or cookies shared, not dirt or sweat or weeds

It was encouraging to me to see the true joy experienced by younger brothers and sisters in Christ who were able to share His love in service to others. While so many youth activities cater to "what will the kids get out of it," this was an opportunity to learn firsthand that it really is better to give than to receive.

It made me think about the ways that the life Jesus calls us to live is fundamentally different from what the world offers us -- but infinitely better.

He calls us to live for Him and not for ourselves, but in the process we find true freedom and the joy that comes from being a channel of His abundant love.

He calls us to abandon worldly pleasures in obedience to His commands, but in the process we find that the world's pleasures are only cheap imitations of His good gifts.

He calls us to discipline ourselves in service to Him, but along the way we come to know the exhilaration of running wholeheartedly toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

May His call change the way we look at every aspect of our lives -- the way we interact with people, the way we spend our time, and, yep -- the way we wash windows and pull weeds.