A Soul To Wait Upon

Beauty and the Beast lyrics unpacked some more:

Life is so unnerving

For a servant who's not serving

He's not whole without a soul to wait upon

We were made to serve. Just as a cheetah was made to run, and a shark to swim, there is something in our wiring as human beings that causes us to give our lives to something.

A 'non-religious' person may say, "That's not true, I serve no God, my life is my own..", but I challenge that. Maybe it's not a God that you're serving, but think about this: As you invest your time and effort into climbing the corporate ladder, are you not serving your career? As you love and teach and discipline your kids, are you not serving them? As you put money aside each month into your pension, are you not serving your future self? With each moment we live, Rand we spend, calorie we burn, we are serving something, someone, some dream of ours.

So now my question is, what do you choose to serve? Is it yourself, your wants and dreams and ego? Or, with your time and resources and talents, are you serving others?

The problem with serving ourselves and even with serving others, is the inevitable disappointment that comes with it. You will let yourself down. It will be thankless. The rewards will too often be fleeting and unfulfilling.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  - Matt 6:19-21

Serving Jesus, the only One who is guaranteed to never disappoint: that is where we find wholeness. And yes, serving Jesus will definitely involve serving others, developing our kids, building our careers, spending our money etc. But the motivation, the why we do what we do is rooted in something so much bigger, something eternal and unfading.

Jesus said that when we do something as simple as giving a cup of water in His name, we will certainly not lose our reward. Giving a cup of water is just meeting a basic human need of another person, but when it's driven from a place of the love and compassion of Jesus, it gives that simple action a whole new meaning and purpose.

So why do you serve? And what is your soul waiting upon?

You're Alone & You're Scared

Beauty and the Beast lyrics part III:

You're alone and you're scared

But the banquet's all prepared

No one's gloomy or complaining

While the flatware's entertaining

Am I a safe place for the lonely and the scared? Can people trust my confidentiality? Rely on my unconditional love and lack of judgement? Depend on my consistency and approachability?

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." - Psalm 34:18

If this is the attitude of my God, it's how I want to live as well.

I want my life to be a place where broken people (from which I do not exclude myself) can find healing and hope through the life of Jesus in me. I want to be a light in the midst of doom and gloom, light that brings clarity and joy through the wisdom and Spirit of God in me. I want to be a safe haven from the terrors and depression of the world through the peace of Jesus. I want to speak the truth with wisdom and love and grace and zero judgement.

I want to have His heart.

Never Second Best

Some more Beauty and the Beast lyrics that can be applied back to our lives:

A dinner here is never second best

Would it be so scandalous to say that I believe that Christians should be at the top of every field and discipline and role in life? And I believe that competence matters for Christians because the Christian life is a life of action, and our actions are intended to result in God being glorified.

Am I saying that every Christian should always be the best at everything? Nej, not at all. I'm saying that each of us should be doing our best at whatever it is we are gifted and called to do. And that when we all rise up to be our best, to live in the fullness of our God-given potential, we will see people across every different space of life succeeding and exceeding for the glory of God.

I'm also not saying that this success only equates to becoming CEO or an Olympic swimmer. Why do we limit ourselves to so little? Let us aim to succeed in friendship, in serving, in giving, in discipling, in teaching, in helping, in forgiving, in loving. Be your best in your role as a nurse, daughter, secretary, guard, coach, parent, driver, friend.

Martin Luther King Jr said:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” 

Being the best also comes down to the little mundane things in our lives: homework, cooking dinner, driving to work, etc. Your life will require you to invest a lot of time and energy in things that aren't big and don't seem to make much of an impact. Habits like working hard, maintaining a positive attitude, living with self-discipline and intergrity bring benefits to our lives now and pay enormous dividends in the future.

Making an effort to be kind to a brother or sister now both shapes your relationship with your sibling and trains you to relate to your future colleagues. Applying your brain to that awful maths now affects your academic future and develops your brain to deal with complex situations later in life.

"Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people." - Col 3:23

If we can rewire our brains to see our every action and word as a chance to glorify Jesus, I believe we will rise up to be our best.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God." - 1 Cor 10:31

We all want to do big and important things, but we tend to discount doing our best in the equally important small things that get us there, even the eating and the drinking. The desire to do your best - even when no one around you requires it - takes a special kind of character. Being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain and maintain the strength needed to be the best.

Please note that we aren't called to be successful all the time. We're called to be faithful, to take those first difficult steps and leave the results up to God. Failure is a way to grow stronger, not to give up. All effort, even failed effort, builds muscle and stamina.

Let's do our best and trust God for the rest.

Ask The Dishes

There's a line in Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast that makes me think about how I live:

Try the grey stuff, it's delicious

Don't believe me, ask the dishes

What do the dishes, the hard circumstances, the people with me in the trenches say about my life? Am I more than just talk? I tell people about how wonderful Jesus is, but is He really such a reality in my life that, through friendship and random interactions with me, those people can actually "Taste and see that the Lord is good"?

I want to live my life in a way that my words and my actions represent something of the goodness, grace and truth of Jesus. I want to be salty. Not in the new way of being bitter and biting, but salty in the Matthew 5:13 way that enhances flavour, that brings a taste of Jesus to whatever place I find myself in this world.