Service

As I type out the word, "Service" into the blog title for this entry, I remember clearly my primary school motto - Ready to serve. Primary school to me was an affair which happened nineteen years ago. However, this motto is still very vivid in my mind especially when I reflect upon the fact that I am going back to National Service (NS) at the end of this month.

Yes, to all my friends out there, I am going back to army soon. To many of my male friends, I will be wasting my time there. To many of my female friends, the first question to their minds is, "Huh?" However to me, I feel it is a privilege to be able to serve my nation for these remaining four months. This is because I feel that I am a Singaporean only after I have been able to serve my nation, Singapore.

I left four months of NS liability as years back, I disrupted to enter NTU for further studies. As my studies come to a closure, it is time for me to go back to complete my NS. I feel that I am ready to serve and this feeling did not come to me just because I have clicked on the new NS portal informing the authorities that I am ready to resume my disruption. This feeling came to me because of Christ who demostrates that service is the top priority in His mind when He came two thousand years ago to show us the way back to God.

Jesus, Himself is our servant King. He did not come to be served but to serve. Following Jesus has enabled me to know what service is all about. If serving the nation is such a great privilege to a Singaporean male, I can conclude that serving God the Father is even more privileged. The reason simply is to be able to serve God the Father can only mean that you are His child! Being His child gives you the right to know the Father intimately.

As Paul puts it, "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." (Colossians 1:10-12)

Remember my previous post? I have mentioned that Light is the name of the Messiah who is Christ Jesus. If we are qualified to be able to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of Christ Jesus. Can you imagine it? Jesus before He was arrested and sentenced to be crucified, He had demostrated the main role of a spiritual leader is to serve by washing the feet of His disciples. Therefore, I feel that being able to serve is indeed a privilege be it to my Nation or to my family and friends. Eventually, it is the Lord Christ I am serving in the midst of all my other services. (Col 3:23-24)

Ready to serve. Am I ready to serve? With regards to NS, I have prepared my heart. With regards to my family, I am committed to them. With regards to my friends, I will wish to serve them more by sharing the Gospel to them, by sharing their burdens with them, by praying for them, by lending a listening ear to them, by leading them out of darkness, by doing many more things for them which I am unable to list them all out here. All in all, I will really like to develop a servant's heart. I believe if I sincerely show my servant heart to the people around me, I will be able to testify for Christ's compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col 3:12) to them. Eventually, they will be able to see God, accept His unconditional love for them and by His grace be saved.

We will then be able to serve Christ together and by our service, the world around us will be able to experience the warmness of God's love! Shall we serve one another starting from this very moment?