Serve: Listen to the ignored voices: Make a change

"So often people say we should be the "voice for the voiceless." That's not really true. Everyone has a voice. Which ones are we ignoring or refusing to hear? Really, it is among the marginalized, the forgotten, the voices that we choose not to hear that we can clearly see what God is up to."  ~ ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson

I love working with middle and high school and college students. In them, I see so much excitement, curiosity and unfiltered hunger for God. As I study the seven faith practices with younger Christians from around the world, I've noticed the pattern that faith practices are HARD. Study? Sounds too much like school. Prayer? Confusing and hard. Worship? Involves getting up early. Invite and encourage? Hard to do when you're shy and probably in need of encouragement yourself. Give? Who has money?

But service. THAT is something that sounds good. You get to be with your friends, feel good, have some variety, and maybe even use power tools or travel to cool places. Service. It's a safe starting point in learning to be Christian adults.

When I push people to answer why they do service, there is usually some squirming. But as they realize the connection with their faith, it gets exciting. Service is a way of showing God's love, of learning about the world around them, and about understanding what it means to be Christian. It lets them listen to people who depend on free meals to eat, build homes for those who lack them, paint schools to provide cheer in schools with daily weapon and drug tests--to make these students just like them feel more like valued human beings. They see what God is up to; they know what it's like to do God's work with their hands.

Our very own ELC Youth in Puerto Rico.

Is it possible to do service without being Christian? Sure. Are there advantages to service from a Christian lens? Absolutely: demonstrating the love we have been given, appreciating our blessings, feeling connected to God in a way that our souls so earnestly crave.

At the National Youth Gathering this past summer, Rachel Kurtz sang this song: Make a Change. This song captures a very human desire for our lives to be meaningful and of service to God. Let's go: let our lives make a difference, do some good here, make a change. Let's serve.

My prayer for you this week is that you may discern how God is calling you to serve. May you see what God is up to, and live into the promise that God takes us--as broken humanity--to take God's work into the world. May it be so.

Rachel