Week 10 | Monday

Read: John 13:3-5, 12-17

We talk a lot about spending our time. Once you spend something, it's gone. Time is like that. Once it's gone, you can't get it back. So, spending time is an appropriate expression. However, when we serve, we're not spending as much as we're investing.

When you invest, you do get something back. When you invest money, you get money back…eventually (assuming you invest well). When you invest time, you don't get time back. The return on your investment is different. Investing extra hours to prep for vacation returns the ability to fully vacate. Investing time driving your kids back and forth to practices, games, recitals, and concerts returns joy as you watch them learn and grow and do things they love.

When you invest time serving others in Jesus' name, you're investing his love in their lives. We are conduits of the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit alive in us. Jesus serves his disciples and tells them to do the same. Then, he tells them the Holy Spirit will come to be their helper (John 14:26). Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, they will do greater things than him (John 14:12).

That always stopped me in my tracks. Greater things than Jesus? Really? Yes. I mean, Jesus said it, so it must be true. How is that possible? He healed the blind, used a sack lunch to feed thousands, and even raised the dead! How could his disciples do more than that?

Jesus' miracles are signs. They foreshadow greater things his followers would do when the Holy Spirit moves through them. By the power of the Holy Spirit through the work of his people, Jesus reveals himself to those who are blind to his existence. By the power of the Holy Spirit and through the work of his people, the spiritually hungry discover that Jesus is the bread of life – nourishment for their souls that never runs out. By the power of the Holy Spirit and through the work of his people, those living in sin die to themselves and are raised to new life in Christ.

What if serving others in Jesus' name and by the power of the Holy Spirit is also a sign? What if we proclaim "there are no outsiders to the love of God" every time we talk to someone ostracized by our society? What if handing someone a bag of groceries at a food pantry signifies that God satisfies our every need? What if volunteering in kids ministry is a sign that Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me"?

Don't serve because you endeavor to fill a need. Serve because you get to, in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, be a sign of greater things that await those who will come to believe in Jesus.

Reflect on this. How does it make you feel knowing you bring signs of Jesus' wonder-working power when you invest your time in serving?