A Beer, A First Kiss, and A Lesson in Serving

When I was on a layover at the airport in Chicago last week, my bartender Manfred told me about his first kiss. "The ice cream truck drove by our house during the summer," he said. "There was a little girl who lived next door and I wanted to buy her an ice cream cone. I asked Mother for the money but she said 'no.' She went into the other room and left her purse out on the table. I knew it was wrong, but those dollar bills were right there. So I grabbed that money and ran after the ice cream truck. That girl kissed me the next day. My first kiss. I think she knew I had done something daring to get her that ice cream."

Isn't that just an adorable story! I have thought of it every day this week as the ice cream truck sings past our house.

But what captured me about Manfred was not how cute his story was our how thirst quenching his beer. What captured me was that he had so clearly discovered the secret to serving. That to serve is to go beyond your job description.

When I worked as editor of Quaker Life magazine in Indiana, my co-workers and I would occasionally be asked to update our job descriptions. And we always found it impossible. Because so much of our jobs went beyond "duties". To "work as editor" meant proofreading and organizing and publishing a magazine every other month. But to "serve as editor" meant to listen to the woman who wondered if it was okay that she always brought pie to the potluck dinner or if this was preventing someone else from using their gifts. To serve meant visiting churches across the U.S. just to sit in worship. To serve meant growing up -- learning that I didn't always have to have my way and I didn't always have to get the credit (deserved or undeserved) -- so that I could better respect the authority of those I worked with. To serve meant telling my own story and calling out the story in others. To serve as editor was so much more than commas and titles and one space after periods or two.

In some of our professions it is easy to see how in our work we serve others, simply by performing the duties on our job description. But in all of our professions, to serve as Jesus would is to go beyond those tasks. To do them joyfully. To seek additional ways to lighten someone's load. To truly connect with others.

The choice is ours. Will we work at our jobs? Or serve up more than is asked of us?