“Your gifts your talents your uniqueness are your service.” A Course of Love, loc. 3723
In the U.S, November is an important month with regard to doing our duty to serve our country. First, hopefully all of us exercised our inalienable right to vote last week. Second, today is Veteran’s Day, the day to appreciate the dedication of those who have served our country.
“For it is in giving that we receive.” ~ St. Francis of Assisi
People find many reasons to serve. Whether it is through a sense of duty, obligation, honor, dedication to a goal, or unity and belonging. But it is true that our service brings to completion the cycle of giving and receiving as one.
Today, I propose we look at Service in a much broader sense. The way I see it, it is our life’s mission to be of service. Service is fulfilling for your-Self, your Soul, and your Community. Through your service, you are providing leadership for others.
A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
“In 1970, a steady beacon brightened the leadership landscape with the publication of an essay titled The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf. In this and subsequent writings, Greenleaf developed the principles of servant leadership, a congruent leadership philosophy based on a simple but profound idea: Leaders whom we trust and want to follow achieve moral authority by being servants to followers and organizations, not by wielding titles or using coercive power. Moreover, entire institutions can act as servants. Every organization has a chart that shows who we are to each other, but servant leadership turns the chart upside down by focusing on how we are for each other.
Servant leadership, however, is not a shallow feel-good philosophy. It calls for radical personal and corporate accountability, deep inner work, and an effort to develop capacities like systems thinking, persuasion, intuition, foresight, and listening with presence.” https://www.greenleaf.org/best-test/
Imagine a way of leading in your life, in your work and your community that doesn’t require a role or a title but is a wholehearted approach to a service-oriented way of being in the world.
- Can you imagine what it feels like for those being served by you?
- What does it feel like to the one who is serving?
“Relationship is the interaction in which service exists.” A Course of Love, loc 3697
Here’s my roadmap for starting your day with a focus on serving through your daily life:
Each morning, ask Your-Self :
- Who am I to serve today?
- Who am I not to serve?
- How can I use my voice to serve?
- How can I use my actions to serve?
Please accept this invitation to start from a place of service for others and yourself each day.