Service: Redefined

If I were to reflect on the things that are important to me and the things I want to be about, I would typically believe that the term service would show up on multiple different occasions. My go-to leadership model is through servant leadership. I worked for a non-profit organization that developed service trips all across the United States that nearly 40,000 people attended each year. I participate in several different service opportunities each year. Service this. Service that. Service. Service. Service. This is something I think people should get involved in and make a priority in their lives.

However, this term service has been causing some sort of internal dilemma within me lately. I just got back from an Alternative Spring Break trip that gave students here at ASU an opportunity to get outside of their comfort zone of Boone and be a part of the ongoing work taking place in gulf cities such as Pascagoula, Mississippi. While the students worked hard all week with the various tasks given them, I felt that there was this lingering question about the level of service work they were doing. I think sometimes we think that we have to be working with children and having a lot of human interaction to gratify our needs for doing service and to quantify what has been done as such. On top of the recent ASB trip, I also attended a workshop on Globalizing Service Learning that discussed what service learning should and shouldn't be.

It is from that workshop and my previous trip that I am developing this skewed view of the word service. I feel that service has become this sort of self proclaiming- pat myself on the back- add it to the resume- look at how good I am - sort of thing people seek just to make them feel better about themselves. I think a lot of people have lost the real meaning and purpose of service as they enter into service opportunities with this appalling god complex. It's like I can hear them walk into those situations proclaiming "HERE I AM TO SAVE THE DAYYYYY!!!!" And that....DISGUSTS ME! If that is what people believe service is and how it should be approached, I want nothing to do with their kind of service.

Another contributing factor to this sudden dissonance in my comprehension of service came from an upcoming program to be held in my building. With the recent disaster taking place in Japan, my staff and I decided to host a fundraiser to help out a local organization Samaritan's Purse. However, it isn't just a "come bring down your pennies to help out a global cause", it is "we will feed you if you can please just spare a penny or two!" Now, I understand that I am catering to an audience of college students and if food is available at any function, they will magically appear. It's like in Field of Dreams when they say "If you build it, he will come" except it's more like "If you feed them, they will come." I digress. My sudden objection to this is that I feel like through these types of programming I am only enabling people to continue with this type of service where there has to be some sort of reward for people to participate. I feel like too many people ask "What's in it for me?" before even considering getting involved in a service opportunity. I'm sorry but if you are only getting involved and helping out because you get a free meal or to boost your ego then you are not doing service. Service in its purest form there is no evidence of selfishness or motivation for personal gain.

(deep breath)

So with all this I come to this conclusion that we need to redefine service. We have to reclaim it for what it is really suppose to be about. It is imperative that we check our motivations for becoming involved in service ensuring that our motives are pure and just. And with that, I step off my soap box.