Serving. Serving others. Serving your spouse. Serving your children. To serve: to allow yourself to be of use in achieving or satisfying the needs of another. When we serve we are satisfying a deep inherent, fundamental purpose that God has built into each one of us. We are built and created to serve others.
Last night at the Brighton store where Margie works, they had their annual “V.I.P” event to celebrate great customers. It’s a closed-door invitation only event and meant to dote on these valued customers. Marge asked me if I would make the long 3 minute drive to the store and serve these ladies. I jumped at the chance, I love to serve.
For those that might not know, when Marge worked as a field rep for Brighton for 16 years, I also worked free-lance for them for several years. I would help with the 5 wholesale markets each year held at the Dallas World Trade Center. My primary job? To serve. I would float the showroom and serve people. Offer water, snacks, our signature cake-balls, get chairs, take coats, give directions and on and on. Last night brought back memories. I served. I put on a suit, passed out champagne, hors d'Oeuvres, fine chocolates, and overall just cared for others. These experiences have changed me. You see, we are built to serve. When I humbly serve others, a part of my soul is ignited. A part of my soul that sleeps is shaken awake. When I truly serve someone else, expecting nothing in return, I thrive. It moves me closer to Jesus. It moves my heart. Jesus came and gave all and asked nothing in return.
I strongly urge you to find a place to serve. And, I’m not talking about waiting tables at a restaurant. That’s done for pay. That’s serving as a job. Now, that will also teach you valuable lessons, but that’s not the serving I’m talking about. Pray to God to present you with an opportunity to serve others in way that will bring Him the glory. As you fulfill this need to serve that God has built into you, message me and let me know how it makes you feel. I would love to hear about your personal experience with serving others.
Now…lets talk image. What? Yes, image. My image, your image, our image. The images that we offer up to the world. The way that we desire to be seen by our daily circle of contacts. As I read through my 5MC this morn I was in 2 Corinthians 11. God moved one verse to the forefront.
“though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.” (2 Cor 12:6)
I want to specifically look at the last part…’so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.’ This made me think of image. We all have an image that we promote. In fact image can be described as a mental picture or idea of that we give others of ourselves. It struck me how simple, humble and genuine Paul was in this passage. He is describing the situation in Lystra where he was pretty much stoned to death and God called him up to the third heaven, the heaven where God resides. (By the way there are 3 heavens. The one where birds fly, the one where stars and planets reside and the third where God lives) Even though Paul had been to the third Heaven, he didn’t want to brag. He didn’t want to use this as a tool to promote his image.
Speaking of promoting image, let’s touch on self-promotion. Never in our world have we had more formats and platforms for self-promotion. Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, WhatsApp, GroupMe, even our own webpages, all allow us with the push of a button to share with others where we are at, who we are with, what we are doing, what we are eating, where we are vacationing, and on and on. When I was growing up (yes I’m old) this did not exist. Self-promotion could only be achieved through a much lengthier personal process and was greatly limited to whom you could reach. I remember when growing up, that a friend invited us over to show us the photos of their recent vacation on that little wheeled slide machine. (I said I’m old)
So is sharing your life with the world inherently bad. No. But remember we’re specifically talking about image here. The image you promote to the world. I’m not a big facebook guy but I do cruise it every once in while. You know what I do see? People that only post a few times a year and when they do its the vacation to Bora Bora or Europe. It’s the new car. It’s how awesome everything in their life is. There is a very specific promotional goal to these posts. What about real life? What about genuineness? After all Paul is saying, “I don’t want anyone to think more of me than exactly what they see in me and hear from me.” Paul was a genuine guy, what you see is what you get. Only three people have ever been called up to the third heaven (Jesus, Paul and John) and even with that ultra-exclusive experience He said I will not brag about it even though its true. If that happened to somebody today, the books and movies would be out in a flash. It’s a different world. One of often times, shameless self promotion.
So I knew of a person that was always posting on FB, the awesome vacations and life experiences they had. On FB, life looked so absolutely fantastic to walk in those shoes. They suddenly and unexpectedly got fired. Facebook goes silent. This had to have been one of the most dramatic, life-altering events in their life but absolutely no mention on social media. How would this affect their image? How would this affect their self-promotion? Not very well I guess. If Dan got fired, my friends and family might think I’m a loser, right? They might think I’m a failure. But it DID happen, so what do I do with it? How does my self-promotion address it? You see if we have a choice to only promote the good and suppress the bad (or what we perceive as bad) it causes an image problem. One of guineness.
I do a little reading on this phenomena of self promotion that social media has created and how it is changing and affecting our society. As everyone in our circles of contact promote a life of leisure, success and oft times perfection, we look at our own lives in direct comparison. I did not go to Paris this year like they did, I’m not as good. My kids didn’t graduate from that prestigious private school, I’m not as successful. I didn’t eat at that fancy restaurant last week, I don’t have a good social life. You see, there is a constant comparative process going on that has not existed on this level in the past. Keeping up with the Jones’ has gone viral and its in our faces every minute of every day.
This new scenario has caused something that has been coined ‘F.O.M.O’ or fear of missing out. Check this out from Wikipedia:
Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is "a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent".[2] This social anxiety[3] is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing".[2]FOMO is also defined as a fear of regret,[4] which may lead to a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a profitable investment, or other satisfying events.[5] In other words, FOMO perpetuates the fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend time since "you can imagine how things could be different"
Fascinating. Our self-promotion has a cost. Our ability to carefully select and then promote the image that the world sees of us has ramifications, not just on us but on others. Paul has a remedy. Be honest. Be genuine. Don’t brag or boast, even if its true. Don’t one up somebody else, even if it happened. Don’t promote your image but protect your image.
Most importantly, how does your image relate to Jesus Christ?
I heard a funny saying one time that said, “if you were to be convicted as follower of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” If I look at your social pages what do I see? What you promote there, is naturally important to you and the image you are wanting the world to see.
There is a big trend right now in job recruiting. An estimated 70% of employers are checking the candidate’s Facebook and social posts before hiring. An estimated 30% of employers now have a dedicated employee on staff to only screen candidate’s social posts. And get this…54% of employers find a reason there on those pages to NOT hire the candidate! The pics of your drunken debauchery over the weekend, the hate filled rants about your boss or co-workers…all there for the world to see. I’ve even personally known some youth that have lost jobs due to their social media posts.
Paul knew that left to ourselves, left to the sin nature that we all have, that given too much freedom to promote ourselves, would end in trouble. This is what we’re seeing today. I pray today that through Jesus you are presenting an image to the world that would please Him. Remember the verse this morning:
“so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.”
God bless your walk today and may it be one that is centered on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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