Marked By Service

O Christ Who Made Himself the Servant of All,

I would set my heart

and my affections upon you – 

and upon you alone – for I can only 

serve others rightly when such service

is undertaken from first to last as 

an act of devotion offered to you.

In serving you, I am freed from my 

need for the praise of others. So that even if my 

kindnesses are shed from scarred hearts as rain 

from a sloped tin roof, my joy will not be dimmed, 

for I will know that you have received and 

remembered each act of sacrifice and reckoned 

it as a love rendered to you.

Let me be content to minister regardless of 

visible outcomes, trusting that the small mercies 

I extend will be woven into the larger theme 

of redemption at work in the lives of others 

as you woo them to yourself,

drawing their hearts by graces offered, 

and shaping my own heart too in this process 

of learning to serve well, and by learning to 

serve well, learning to love well.

So let my love be sincere, 

and let my service be fearless, O Lord.

Every Moment Holy, Volume 1