How May I be of Service

 How can I be of service? Admittedly it sounds like something you hear when calling a customer service line or chatting with a Customer Service Representative online. It also sounds like something I ask my grandma on a daily basis “What do you need grandma?” In other words how may I be of service to you. It’s one of a series of questions posed in the book  “The Courage to Confront Evil” In it the author Caroline Myss has a series of questions to ask GOD every day:

• What should I do with this life you have given me today?

• What shall I do with the gifts you’ve given me?

• How can I be of service? 

• What NEEDS to be done?

I used to write a column for the church newsletter back when I attended an Episcopal church in San Francisco called Time and Talent where I interviewed a parishioner each month and wrote about the talents and gifts of time they provided for the church. It was a way of letting people know what opportunities to serve the church were available and the people involved. When I came to Oklahoma and attended the Newcomers classes at Saint John’s Episcopal church they had one class which specifically went over all the opportunities to serve the church that were available. After doing Cards for Others for a few years I had to give it up because I no longer had the time to do it because I was now called by GOD (and my aunt) to help care for my grandma more often. 

Another challenge Caroline Myss poses in her book is to ask what needs to be done. When I’m at my grandma’s working as her PCA what needs to be done is clearly laid out on her care plan. What needs to be done is also evident when the washer or dryer are going or when the sheets are stripped off the bed or the food container from the Senior Nutrition Center is on the kitchen counter unopened. Not so obvious is what grandma’s emotional needs are. Her needs for anything come out in the same question “When’s [her daughter/my aunt] coming home?” Then we ask her “What do you need?” Sometimes she can articulate it and sometimes the dementia has taken over along with the hearing loss and it becomes a guessing game. 

When it comes to GOD however, in prayer we often approach GOD with OUR needs rather than coming to GOD humbly and asking “What should I do with this life you have given me today? What shall I do with the gifts you’ve given me? How can I be of service? What NEEDS to be done?” We forget that as Dr. Wayne Dyer said, quoting the French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” We forget to humble ourselves before GOD. We forget to USE our life in service to GOD and to others. We focus more on the material than the spiritual.  

 So my challenge to you and to myself as we enter into the year 2024 is to humble yourself and ask GOD every day: “How can I be of service?” I leave you with this post I recently came across on social media: