What's your excuse?

What's your excuse for not serving in the church or in the community?

If I only…
The Wizard of Oz has always been one of my favorite movies. I am of the generation that was pre VHS and DVD, so I consider myself a true fan of this classic where watching it semi-annually on television was a special treat. Remember getting special permission to stay up past bedtime to watch Dorothy melt down the Wicked Witch? It’s still a personal favorite, even though my only reoccurring nightmare as a child included flying monkeys coming from a spaceship that had landed in my front yard. (Yes, I know that is a strange combination of Planet of the Apes and Wizard of Oz, but what can I say?)

Each of the characters in the Wizard of Oz was searching for something. Like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion and Dorothy, are you searching for something before you jump into the adventure of serving in the church or in the community?

If I only had a brain
Do you need to be smart enough to serve? What Scarecrow found is that he didn’t really need a degree to merit his value in the kingdom of Oz. He just needed to recognize the skills and common sense he already possessed. God has given you the skills to serve him right now—in this stage of life. Sometimes I meet people who feel they aren’t qualified to serve because they don’t know everything there is to know about the Bible, they don’t have a degree, or are too young or too old, too ashamed, or sometimes even too good. You may have heard or read this before, “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called.” It’s true. What are you waiting for?

“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God has prepared YOU to be an agent of his grace.

If I only had a heart
I always thought it curious that Tin Man shed tears but claimed he didn’t have a heart. (Remember Dorothy telling him to stop crying or he would rust?) Tin Man and the Scarecrow had the same problem. They needed to acknowledge what they already had, instead of focusing on what was missing. Some people wait to jump into serving, thinking that they don’t have the passion to sustain work for a cause. Maybe you don’t serve others because you don’t feel like God has “given” you a cause—he hasn’t given you a heart for those on the margins.

Instead of waiting for your own heart to break over something before you serve, try gaining God’s heart. What does God’s heart look like?
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'” (Matthew 25:42-45)
Ask God to do an extreme makeover of your heart—making it look more like his.

If I only had courage
Lion didn’t know he possessed courage because he never loved anyone else enough to put himself in harm’s way—until he met Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tin Man, that is. Lion operated in self-preservation mode until he learned a valuable lesson. When pushed into a corner, Lion did show courage to protect that which he had learned to love.

Serving others can be risky. Sometimes you have to delay your own desires. Sometimes you risk being taken advantage of. Sometimes serving is a thankless activity. “I’m never doing that again. Those people didn’t appreciate my help at all.” I’ve thought that more than once in my journey of serving others. A painful or disappointing experience helping others can cause you to draw back and protect yourself from further pain. But consider this: Christ serves as our ultimate example of the courage to serve and love. He died for everyone, sacrificing his life for those that acknowledge, accept, and appreciate it and even for those who don’t.

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7, 8)

Courageously serve God, letting him be in control of the outcome.

There’s no place like home.
We finally come to Dorothy, who simply wanted to go home. Remember how she wound up at Oz in the first place? She was in trouble with a neighbor, was trying to save her little dog, and was looking for adventure. She thought she would find her hearts desire somewhere over the rainbow. Are you looking to serve, but wishing it was more adventurous, more exciting than what happens in your own community? There are valuable mission trips that you can take across the world. They are very valuable moments of service to missionaries and their families.

But while you wait for that moment, remember the lesson Dorothy learned: “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard because if it isn’t there, I haven’t had it to begin with.” If your primary motivation to serve others is your own sense of adventure, consider this advice from Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson, “Our love for others outside our homes means little if we don’t first start by loving those in our homes.”*

Your home, your work, your neighborhood, your community…those are the places where the rubber meets the road in aligning your skills, passion, and mercy with God’s purposes.


*from Living a Life on Loan, by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson, Standard Publishing, Ohio, 2006, pg. 44