Service...

Emblazoned on the sides of our fire truck is the motto, “We Volunteer Because Your Life Depends On It.”  Its a catchy motto, the idea it portrays is a nice one, for some it might even be correct.  

The question of why do you serve is about as personalized as the minds that pose it.  The altruistic answer is the motto.  I am here, I serve because you depend on me.  Its nothing that I get out of it, its of no benefit to me, it all because of you.  There are probably some that fit into this category, many, probably most, do not.  The other side of the coin is I serve because of what it I can get out of it, completely ME centered.  I can hypothesize or theorize why some serve, why some volunteer, but those are all they would be.  The answer I can give is why I serve.  

As a disclaimer to this thought, my parents modeled service to me my whole life, its probably why I see service the way I do right now.  

In the beginning I served because my parents required me to.  Whether it was ingathering, helping the poor, or some other activity I HATED, they MADE me do it.  They MADE me do it for many years, then they stopped making me.  I had grown into a person that could start to make decisions all on my own, not all ones that my parents approved of, but thats nothing new.  

The next phase of my life came along, I started serving because I was expected to or because thats what all my friends were doing and I didn’t want to be left out.  Building fences at the indian mission and doing community service days spring to mind, service didn’t impact me much further than spending time with my friends, taking weekend trips to fun locations.  

Through the end of high school and most of the way through college my focus on service shifted.  A choir trip to Grand Junction Colorado comes to mind, we were traveling west at sunset on Friday night, for church service’s the next morning.  Our very wise and amazing choir teacher led us in vespers and singing on the bus, the topic if memory serves was service.  Whether it was because of the setting or being around so many AMAZING friends on that trip, the idea of service started to sink in.  

Going to school at Union College in Lincoln Nebraska, I was given the opportunity to be involved in Project Impact.  The school thought service was so important, they canceled school one day a year to devote that day to service.  Forty to fifty sites around Lincoln were picked and students would go and volunteer for the day doing everything from cleaning, to painting, to fixing, to reading…the list goes on.  Again I did it because of friends, this time, it was my sister and her soon to be husband.  As the years went on, that act became second nature, I wanted to be involved with Project Impact.  

In steps Sandy Prindle (Nazario), she flat told me, “Stephen, you need to volunteer as a student missionary in the Marshall Islands.”  I thought it sounded like a pretty cool idea, started down that road…my girlfriend at the time told me that it wasn’t a good idea…what did Stephen do…he caved and decided it really wasn’t Gods will.  As time would have it, we broke up, and my mind drifted to Student Missions.   In 2008-2009 I decided to go to the Marshall Islands and serve God with my “talents.”  That “year for God” (Yes, this is where my blog got its name) was a pivotal year in my life.  It was one of the hardest years of my life.  I came back a changed person, it started being less about my friends doing it, and more about God calling me to do it.  

Coming back from the Marshall Islands, God led me into a career of service, not volunteer, but service.  God then led me to a volunteer career that is another facet of my life of service.  That brings me full circle.  Why am I here, why do I serve?  I serve because God called me here, God place me here, God brought me here.

So do I “Volunteer Because Your Life Depends On It?  You might say its a two way street, I volunteer because it could be your life, or it might be my life that depends on it.