I stepped into the park with my mission trip team, excited to spend time with the kids and tell them about Jesus. Looking about, I saw many team members had already found a kid to buddy up with for the evening. It was our Family Fun Night, full of games, skits, a gospel presentation, and a raffle. I tried to find a buddy, but in the small neighborhood there were more team members than kids. I tried visiting with some teens – no luck. I tried desperately but couldn’t find a buddy. There was only one thing left to do – see if I was needed at the snack table. I was given the job of filling cups with water and lemonade.

As I watched many of my team members playing with the kids, my heart ached. I love children, and God has given me a gift of being able to connect with kids. Not being able to find a buddy hurt because that was my gift, my calling, and my passion. Instead I was serving lemonade.

As I wrestled with the turmoil I was feeling in my heart, my mind returned to the devotional I’d read the day before. It was about service and Jesus’s willingness to wash the disciples’ feet.

Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. John 13:5

Now, today if you wash someone’s feet, they might stink a little, but it wouldn’t be that bad. But in Jesus’s day, washing someone’s feet was gross. Everyone wore sandals, so their feet naturally would be more dirty, plus the roads were often filled with waste, so your feet would be extra gross! Washing someone’s feet was a job for the lowest servant, yet Jesus, the Lord and Master, chose to take the lowest job and wash His disciples’ feet.

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. John 13:12-17

As I filled cup after cup with water and lemonade, I decided that if Jesus could take the lowest place of service then surely I could serve lemonade. It wasn’t easy. I had to fight to keep saying, “God I will serve you even in the lowest place,” and to smile as I served lemonade, but I kept doing it. I just kept reminding myself that Jesus was willing to do the lowest job, and it helped me to keep going.

When God asks us to do a job that is our “specialty,” it’s easy to say yes and do it with joy. But when God asks us to do a job that’s not glamorous or is hard, it’s much easier to say no or to serve with a grumpy face instead of joyfully saying yes. To joyfully complete a task that isn’t our expertise takes a lot of humility, and that’s hard. Humility isn’t natural. It takes work. But it is worth it, because it helps us to be more like Jesus.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:3-8

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” Matthew 25:34-40

After snack was over, I glanced to my left to see two sisters who didn’t have any mission team members with them. So, after making sure I wasn’t needed at the snack station anymore, I went over to see if they would watch the skits and gospel presentation with me. I got to sit with them through the presentations and raffle, and then I got to push the little two-year-old on the swings. Her smile and laughter were priceless and made the whole evening worth it.

I learned two very important lessons that day, lessons I’ve heard before, but that were especially reinforced and demonstrated through that day.

First, we are not called to serve only in our areas of expertise, but are actually called to serve wherever God needs us. Often God asks us to serve in our areas of weakness because through our weaknesses His strength is seen more clearly.

Secondly, God chooses to bless us, not because we deserve it, but because God is a good Father who loves to bless and encourage His children.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11

I thank God for blessing me with the time I got to spend with the two little girls. He didn’t have to give me that gift, but He did anyways. I wasn’t easily rejoicing over serving drinks – it was a fight to say “God, I’ll keep serving lemonade for you,” but He was still willing to bless me with time with the two girls, and I praise and thank Him for that. And through this experience, God helped me to grow. What a wonderful God we serve! 🙂

Maybe you are currently being asked by God to serve in an area that isn’t your “specialty.” Maybe you’re feeling weary and incapable. I hope that you feel encouraged today to press on and not give up! God promises that if we persevere, we will reap a harvest (see Galatians 6:9), and He uses our weaknesses to show His mighty strength through us (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). Trust in God, your good Father, who loves you and is at work in you!

With love,

Kelsey