Service and Celebration

ok I'm a little behind so here is two posts in one!

ServiceLike most of you I was really impacted reading about the differences between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant. For a while, because of being injured, I was worried that I wouldn't make it out on the water this summer.  I find that in general I tend to have a fear of losing things that I love.  Reading this devo totally rocked my world. dang the freedom that comes in letting go of my desire to serve in such a specific capacity and instead purposing to be a servant.  When I commit to being a servant it doesn't matter who or how or where I serve because I am a servant with no rights.  Whether I am at home  or on the water nothing changes because my identity has been purposed as a servant, the rest is just differences in geography and circumstance. Instantly my fear of losing sonshine or other things I love is obsolete because though my role or actions or surroundings may fluctuate my identity as a servant is firmly rooted in the rock that is my never-changing, ever faithful, constant Jesus.

"whoever serves me must follow me; where I am, my servant also will be"
If I am a servant, I will be with the Lord, this I will never lose.

Celebration
Reading through this devo I found myself realizing more and more that the outcome to everything, the reason for everything, the result of every situation, every consequence, everything is the revelation of Jesus and the Father.  Every instant of every moment of my life Jesus is revealing himself and the Father to me. Every being, every breath, every grain of dirt and salt has the father's mark on it.  Whether good bad or ugly, the fact that Jesus is risen is the period to every sentence.  Thinking about this I can totally picture what Steve Mann described as the universal cosmic song and dance designed and tuned to cry the name and Glory of Jesus.  What a celebration!

As I was thinking about service and celebration and processing through both of them semi together I couldn't help but feel like the two were bound closely together.  Thinking about being on the water, every friday on the delta or saturday on Shasta after dropping campers and finishing a grueling day of work we celebrate with pizza and worship.  After a barney session we celebrate with affirmations and accounts of God's work and what we've learned.  We serve by putting on program and then celebrate the next morning by sharing stories and victories from response time.  On shasta, after weekend work is done we celebrate with staff activities or parties.  We serve, we celebrate, we serve, we celebrate, we serve, we celebrate.  We are called to both.  So then I found myself questioning; can serving be an act of celebration and can celebration be an act of service?  Man, what if every act of service was done with not only a spirit of submission and humility but also with a spirit of celebration! I imagine barneys celebrating as they scrub mikey floors, drivers celebrating as they lay on their backs in a dirt parking lot to clean ski boats, admin celebrating as they rise before the sun to do laundry or drive through the night to drop ski boats off at the other location, trainees celebrating as they let go of roles and sit with a shy camper braiding bracelets for the 5th day in a row.  And what if every celebration was laced and intertwined with a spirit of self-giving sacrificial love? I imagine weekend staff activities not just as careless fun times together but as times filled and focused on intentionality, affirmation, and encouragement.  3 hour solo time is such a cool picture of this because not only do we share in the joy of God's victory the night before but we get on our knees and fervently pray, fight, and go to battle for our campers.  Serve-celebrate, serve-celebrate, serve-celebrate.

"let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" - Hebrews 12:2