Serving ‘with Gladness’

‘Serve...with gladness...’ Psalm 100:2 NKJV

Anything God gives you is first a gift to enjoy, then a seed to sow. Do you have a good education? Leadership ability? More money than you need? God has given you seeds, so sow them. There are basically three kinds of people: those who can’t see, or refuse to see the problem; those who see the problem, but because they didn’t personally create it are content to leave it to others; those who see the problem and though they didn’t create it, are willing to assume responsibility for solving it. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, said, ‘I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. Finally I ended up asking Him to do His work through me.’ When you come to believe, really believe that service is God working through you, you’ll understand that serving others is the highest calling of all. Dr William DeVries thought that way. He’s the surgeon who pioneered the artificial heart, and he’s the kind of doctor who shows up at the hospital on Sunday just to cheer up discouraged patients. He even changes dressings, and if a patient wants him to stick around and talk he always does. His friends say he’s ‘an old shoe’ who fits in wherever he goes. He wears cowboy boots with his surgical scrubs and repairs hearts to the music of Vivaldi. ‘He’s always got a smile lurking,’ says his friend Dr Robert Goodin, ‘and he’s always looking for a way to let it out.’ The truth is, ‘arriving’ is not a place where others serve you but where you serve them ‘with gladness’.