“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.” — St. Teresa of Avila
Today I want to highlight the spiritual discipline of service.
A few years ago during a discussion on spiritual discipline, one student expressed frustration with the whole idea. “I can’t sit still!” he cried. “But I’m supposed to sit still and pray. Help!”
There are a lot of people like that student in the world: people who are incredibly active, hands-on, live-in-the-moment types. Frankly, I don’t know what we would do without these folks in the church. They preach passionate sermons and get the rest of us moving. Yet sometimes these folks feel bad about themselves, because they can’t sit still through a long flowery prayer.
If this description fits you, go out this Advent season and serve! The challenge for you will be putting together a plan. So call up a charitable agency in your area, find out what kind of help they need, make the appointment, and show up. While you’re there, live in the moment! Meet people, pay attention to what you see and hear, et cetera.
Then, after it’s all over, write about it your journal. Try this outline:
- What you did
- What you experienced with your five senses
- Your thoughts & emotions
- Write a prayer for the people you served
Today’s daily Scripture reading from the PC(USA): http://gamc.pcusa.org/devotion/daily/2010/12/3/
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