Continuing on my train of thought about the subject of “service”, with previous conversations here and here… I think this is a good topic and it seems to be at least touching a nerve with people, regardless of whether or not we’re all on the same page about it.

I guess part of what interests me so much about the idea of service is that it is so intimately tied to the notion of purpose. That is, when you put yourself at the service of other people, your purpose in life becomes crystal clear. No confusion. Focusing on your own well-being is all well and good, but if you focus your efforts on it long enough, chances are you eventually succeed at it. Your lifestyle tends to become somewhat stabilized, comfortable, predictable and protected. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It forms an excellent foundation upon which you can build afterwards. I believe it was Maslow who said that all your basic needs as an individual must be met first before you can become self-actualized.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’ve reached that stage of self-actualization though. Your needs as an individual are met. Things are working. What then? What becomes your purpose when you’ve achieved basic survival and personal goals?

If you just keep things as they are after that point, you may enter a kind of stasis. Which may work for you, or it may not. For me, it does not. I hate feeling like my life is stagnant. I like continually pushing myself into new territories, new experiences, new challenges. For me, seeking those sorts of things out has become part of my new purpose, beyond meeting my own basic needs as a human.

But even that, I feel like, has the real risk of becoming a hollow goal at some point. Mastering yourself, giving yourself new challenges. You become better at handling them, more adept at solving problems, more adaptable. Again, another great goal and a useful purpose for a while. You can never exhaust learning. That’s how I approach life. It’s one thing that never lets me down. But it can feel empty at times. And it can tend towards feeling like you’re just challenging yourself for the sake of challenging yourself. One small adventure to the next. It’s not a wrong way to live, but I wonder if there isn’t something more.

The notion of service obliterates that uncertainty while maintaining an exhaustively high level of personal challenge for the individual who decides to commit themselves in such a way. When you commit yourself to service, your purpose becomes something besides yourself. You take your own needs and desires out of the central spot-light and focus on whatever it is you’re serving.

Obviously, there are many different directions service can go: to those around you, to your community, to institutions, to individuals, to humanity, to the environment or the natural world. And there is always the personal responsibility for your actions and decisions and how they impact others. Anyway, I don’t know how to wrap this up exactly, as its currently an open subject of contemplation for me. How about something from the Rule of St. Francis, the statement of purpose which governs the Franciscan order, a group completely dedicated to service and humility:

Those brothers to whom the Lord has given the ability to work shall work faithfully and devotedly, so that idleness, which is the enemy of the soul, may be excluded and not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion to which all temporal things should be subservient. As the price of their labors they may receive things that are necessary for themselves and the brothers, but not money or property. And they shall humbly receive what is given them, as is becoming to the servants of God and to those who practice the most holy poverty.