Wading in a Cold Stream

by Tim Keller, Lead Pastor

Our neighborhood association has a clean-up day each spring where, among other things, a few of us wade into the LeTort stream and pick up trash that people have tossed in throughout the past year. Usually we collect everything from grocery carts to plastic toys, from empty two-liter bottles to plastic bags.

When we pick up trash the stream benefits, the fish benefit, and the community benefits. When I’m wading hip deep in the freezing waters of the LeTort, I don’t feel as if I benefit.

Galatians 6:2 indicates that Christians are to “bear one another’s burdens.” In the local church setting I think that looks like spending time listening to one another, praying for one another, offering encouragement to one another and even serving one another.

This commitment to one another can be time-consuming, troubling and quite messy. Often when we are encouraged to engage in such behavior the message is conveyed in such a way that communicates, “I know this is a pain, but it’s the right thing to do.” 

Our motivation becomes solely focused on the other person and their needs. Noble, but difficult to maintain.

What if I told you that all that ministry to others is actually part of Jesus’ plan for our lives? God’s call to us to engage our brothers and sisters in caregiving is actually part of His plan to grow us into a deeper dependency on Him.

When my friend needs a listening ear and I’d rather be giving him a lecture, I’m forced to trust Holy Spirit to give me power to stay silent. When I’d prefer to stay quiet about a bad habit in my friend’s life, God’s Spirit gives me the capacity to speak up in love and help him with a blind spot.
God grows my faith when I exercise a servant heart.

When my mother was a young Christian her first ministry assignment was to teach a class of children. She often recounted that she learned more studying the Bible in preparation for teaching those children than she ever would have simply sitting in a Bible class for adults. The act of serving those children ultimately helped to shape and grow her own faith.

God’s call on us to minister to others is not just for their benefit. Though at times it may feel as if He has called us to wade into a cold stream to bless others, the truth is that His plan involves a blessing that comes back on those who serve.