There is a fountain of flowing water in a garden behind a church building. The youth group dreamed it up after the property committee complained that the teenagers weren’t helping at church.
The youth adopted that plot of ground as a confrontational response. The garden took shape quickly. I remember a three-hour conversation while we waited for the cement to dry. We agreed that some water would be significant. Eventually, a widow donated her husband’s fountain, an act of love and letting go. We cried as a group the day it was installed. A few weeks later, two teenagers were baptized in that particular fountain.
Not all servanthood is done at church. Most of it happens quite by accident. I like to be well-organized. I’m good at making forms and file folders and being focused on task. This, I truly believe, is faithful service both to God and to the mission of the agency. At the same time, when a co-worker approaches your desk and says softly, “Today is the anniversary of my little brother’s death,” you simply stop what you’re doing and listen. Maybe our best ministry happens in the interruptions.
This message was adapted from “Called to Service” written by Diane Marten that first appeared in the July/August 2008 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
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