For the Love of Service

2003-1-20 05:10:00

Thanks BM and Ruth for your comments indicating your motive in service - which is love for God.

Actually, to say one is motivated by the love of God is very close to being motivated by joy, as I mentioned and evidenced in the following scripture:

"And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. "And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul. I Nephi 11 22-23

The love of God is "the most joyous to the soul." If the love of God brought us torment or pain, then we would not be very motivated by it would we? But because the love of God and all spiritual love bring joy then those who have experienced feeling it will have a strong desire to serve higher purpose so a fullness of joy can be obtained.

This helps us understand Hebrews 12:2 which tells us that Jesus was motivated by the joy he would obtain.

It is interesting to take a look at the average spiritual person who loves God as good as the best of them and see how he dispenses his service.

On the average case, he will spend 40-50 hours a week at work serving others for money as the prime motive.

Then he may spend another 10-20 hours serving his spouse and children. Why his spouse and his kids and not others in greater need than his family?

Because they are his spouse and his kids and they provide him with greater benefit than the more needy.

He may attend a church or spiritual service several hours a week, but attending a meeting of itself is not service. He is motivated by what the service offers him or his soul.

He may serve his own desires for twenty or more hours by preparing and eating meals, watching TV, surfing the Internet, reading books or just relaxing at some hobby.

He may spend another 10-20 hours in fairly neutral activity such as driving, walking commuting, bathing, dressing, shopping or nothing much at all. These activities are roughly necessary to serving bodily needs.

If he is lucky, he may have a few hours left for altruistic service. He may give of his time to teach, to feed the poor, to help a friend in need, to serve his party or church etc.

In this service he is not serving an individual being (God) directly but is serving God through helping his fellow men.

It is interesting to look over our lives at those who have served us and ask ourselves what was the motive of those who helped us the most. Did they seem to be very spiritual people and motivated to help you because they loved God, or did they seem to be people that didn't seem to be particularly big on God, but just naturally nice people? This would be an interesting question for the group to comment on.

As for me, as I reflect on those who helped me when I really needed it, a good deal of that help came from people who were not particularly religious, or spiritual in the normal sense. I'm not sure if there is an incident where I was helped by a person who was motivated purely for his love for God. I have noticed that atheists are often as helpful as those who see themselves as dedicated to God. The most selfless service anyone has rendered me has been my mother. During my early life she was not religious and never went to church. Later, she became very religious and dedicated to God. Even so, her willingness to serve me was pretty consistent throughout.

Another interesting thing to note is that that the strongest attempts to do me harm in my life has been from individuals who have had a strong belief they are serving God. I've never had much problem from nonbelievers.

My summary: The greatest servants of humanity are those who have an inner contact with the soul and realize that helping others is like helping ourselves and receive joyousness from the act. Many of these people are not God conscious by the normal definition but are god conscious from a higher point of view.