A LIFE OF SERVICE
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
© February 2020, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.
All information in this article is for
educational purposes only. It is
not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health
condition.
Contents
Definition
The Basic Philosophy Of Service
Gaining And Losing
It Is All About Motives
What Service Is Not
Does It Matter Whom You Serve
II. WHY IS SERVICE AN
IMPORTANT IDEA?
III. QUALITIES OF THE
SERVICE-ORIENTED PERSON
______________________
DEFINITION
Service is an
attitude about life, and about why you do or act and think in various
ways. The idea of service is to
give of yourself and help others, not just yourself.
THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF SERVICE
The idea of
serving is based on an assumption that we are all joined at one level. Therefore, by helping others, one must
help oneself.
In contrast,
by helping mainly oneself, in fact one harms oneself. The reason is because we are so connected to everyone else
that their needs and ours are identical. You donÕt need to know the people
very well for this to be understood.
As a result,
as you serve others and the greater good in a wise manner, you will benefit
immeasurably. The wise manner is
to include yourself in the circle of your love. In other words, do not ignore yourself when you give
service, for if you do, you will sicken or Òburn outÓ, or become too tired or
bored to continue.
GAINING AND LOSING
Service is
never about gaining anything for yourself at the
expense of another. Service is not
about taking advantage of the weakness, ignorance, stupidity or carelessness of
others.
Service is
about helping others to overcome these qualities and to make the best of their
lives. You will benefit greatly
from this, so donÕt worry about being number one in anything.
IT IS ALL ABOUT MOTIVES
In the
concept of service, it does not matter what activity you are engaged in, or the
time of day, or the time of year.
You may be playing with friends, taking out the garbage, chatting on the
telephone, cleaning house, raising a child, running a business, working for
someone else, building a house, or just lying in bed with your partner. These do not matter in the least.
What matters
in terms of this article is your reason or motive for doing whatever you do,
and for being who you are. This is what matters, and only this. Where, when, how and to whom you give service are besides the point, in fact, or at least
secondary to your basic motive for acting and being alive.
WHAT SERVICE IS NOT ABOUT
Service is not sacrifice.
Service is not poverty.
Service is not slavery to anyone or anything. This is very important to recall at all times.
If service sinks into slavery, poverty, lack or
sacrifice of yourself, you are not in service any more. You are in some other mental/emotional
space that is usually not healthful.
Service means you are joyously giving of your time and talents to assist
others.
DOES IT MATTER WHOM YOU SERVE?
In one way,
it does not. At another level, it
matters greatly, and this is one of the subtle qualities about service.
At a basic
level, service is about accepting responsibility and following the orders of
your conscience, or your boss, or your military commander. In other words, at one level service is
simply about obedience and following, and doing what is needed and best in each
situation.
However, if
one follows the wrong leader, one is doomed. We all know this.
For example:
- If you follow ÔfriendsÕ who smoke
dope, or drink alcohol and carouse, you will not get far, and will probably die
young, poor and perhaps raped or beaten up.
- If you follow a political leader who lies and
cheats, or is corrupt, your nation will go down in ruin.
- If you follow a military leader like a Hitler,
Stalin or Mao Tse Tung, you will usually die for no
good cause, and you may cause the needless death of millions of others.
- If you listen to a college professor or teacher
and follow his advice, and are not discerning enough to check it, you may cause
much harm to yourself and others.
- If you even follow the advice of your husband,
wife or partner who is ignorant, you may lose all of your money or worse.
So it can be
a critical matter whom one follows, and to whom and to what one is obedient.
II. WHY IS SERVICE AN
IMPORTANT IDEA?
It is just
the most important concept of life on earth. Service is about giving back the gift of life that has been
given to you. As you do this, your
life will change for the better.
You may not see it at first, but it will occur.
Some who
watch religious television networks know this. When people decide to live for service, all kinds of
wonderful things begin to happen to them, often in odd and unusual ways.
It is as
though God, or the universe, or perhaps your higher or
Real Self waits for you to commit to a life of service so your life can be used
for some wonderful project. When
anyone, at any age, makes the decision to give over his or her life to service,
high-level beings take notice!
They jump
for joy and they immediately Òshare the case loadÓ with you. This means they will set before you a
task. It may be menial or even
trivial, but it is a task that needs doing.
Often the
first tasks are fairly simple, though not always. If you follow through with these, others tasks are set
before you that require more intelligence or activity or some kind. In this way, you grow in spirit, you
grow in character, your life becomes filled with more interesting people,
places and events, and you take your place slowly as a master of this planet,
not a victim of it.
It may seem
odd to say that by serving, and being obedient to your high self or God, that
you become a master. However, this
is exactly how it works.
The true masters are true servants of
others and of God or the universe.
So to become one of them, you, too, must learn to serve and serve
correctly, all of the time.
III. QUALITIES OF A PERSON
WHO LIVES A LIFE OF SERVICE
This is a
very important section. It is one
thing to want to be of service.
However, everyone needs to learn, practice and thus develop the
qualities needed to be of service.
Otherwise, your desire to be of service will never come to fruition
properly. You may burn out, become
depressed or overwhelmed, or just fail at your tasks.
Here are the
most important qualities of a service life:
STEADINESS. The person of service keeps going when
the going gets rough. This is
essential, and perhaps the most important quality. You must not be discouraged when things do not work out
right. That is just a small rock
on the road that you must push aside and move on.
This means,
first and foremost, that when things do not go well, do not give up. Giving up is the end of the game, and
definitely no fun for a person in service. That option must be ruled out.
Also, when
disappointment strikes, you are not to become too discouraged or
depressed. When there is not
enough money, or not enough people to help, or not enough time to help, you are
not discouraged. You realize it is
not up to you to solve all problems, in most cases. Your responsibility is to keep on going, and do your
best.
If you are
bright, clever and courageous, sometimes you may be able to solve the problems
that arise. If you do, you are
demonstrating other abilities and you will be given more complex tasks next
time around.
Having said
this, a person must not be so steady that he or she ends up dead, or a
martyr. This is not the goal of
service. You must stay alive, you must eat and have a place to live. So if the task or situation is draining
the life out of you, steadiness also leads to another quality of the person who
lives in service to others.
KNOWS WHEN TO LET GO. This quality is also essential for
service. Some projects are
literally Òmission impossibleÓ. They are just not ready to happen.
You may want
to end world hunger, for example.
That is fine, but many have tried before you, so perhaps that is a
worthy service goal, and a good way to spend your life, but if you kill
yourself in the process of trying to accomplish it, that is not good for
service.
Those who do
not have this quality of knowing when to quit become disabled, depressed or
ill. Then they often become a
burden to society because someone must care for them, and perhaps even bury or
cremate, them. That is not
service, but stupidity. However,
it is very common on planet earth.
So learning
when to leave, when to stop, when to end a relationship, when to end a project,
when to say that God must have other plans for me - this is vital. Once again, it is a learning experience
to find the balance between steadiness or stick-to-itiveness and when to let
go. An article on this website may
help entitled Letting Go.
DETERMINED. The next
factor to learn if you want to be of service is related to steadiness, but is
slightly different.
The person
of service is always slightly unusual, very determined, and not easily
dissuaded. This is what is meant
here by ruthless. It is a somewhat
rough, somewhat masculine even if it is in a woman, and always admired by
others. It will make your enemies
angry, though, and will create some enemies, so beware.
Determination
is needed because life presents many challenges, and one must overcome them by
force, at times, in order to succeed.
Everyone in service learns this at one time or another.
You see, there are forces that want only the status quo or worse, they want destruction.
So if you are in service and trying to build a better life or a better
world, they will naturally oppose you.
This is fine, and you must accept it as ÒnormalÓ.
The correct
response is to be ruthless in your pursuit. Any other response will usually bring down your effort
because the opposing forces are also ruthless, in their own sweet way,
often.
So, for
example, if you want to change the government to get rid of corruption, realize
that the forces of corruption will not just yield. They have been there for years, in most cases, and have
established themselves firmly.
They have their Òfriends in high placesÓ whom they will call upon to
stop you. So you must be ruthless,
preferably with a smile, in your pursuit.
SINGLE-MINDED
OR VERY FOCUSED. To be of
service, one must also be very focused on your mission, objective or goal. Many who seek to be of service fail
because they cannot maintain their focus or objective well enough in the face
of opposition or temptation.
Opposition
means the forces that would oppose your objective or goal. Temptation means the forces that would
oppose your service by distracting you.
So becoming single-minded and focused, and becoming immune to
distraction, is a key to service.
UNSELFISH.
Selfishness, in this article and context, means that you want to offer service,
but only on your terms. You want a
nice house, a nice car, perhaps, some nice friends, a few vacations, a decent
salary, perhaps, or whatever else you believe you need to be of service.
Unselfishness
may be the most important quality of service. If you are selfish, you will be too easily co-oped, distracted, bought off, bribed or just become lazy
and decide to quit. You will also
be influenced by all sorts of forces that will take you off your chosen path of
service.
Selfish
people do not like Òthe heatÓ, or perhaps the cold, or perhaps the deprivation,
or perhaps the people you must deal with, or something else.
Selfishness
is a lower center attribute, which means it is a regression to a lower level of
existence in which you actually believe you are just a physical being, like an
animal, that must have all its physical and other needs met first, before you
can go forward with a project.
This attitude is a killer of service, if I may use the term. So watch out for selfishness.
Selfishness
of any kind has another negative effect.
It saps your strength and drive.
Instead of focusing totally on your service, you find yourself focused
on whether things are neat in the house, or whether your clothing is pretty
enough. Some who are selfish focus
on whether people like them a lot, whether the partner is sexually satisfying
or if one needs a different partner to be of good service.
All such
considerations dampen your service and diminish it a lot. We have all been ÒhelpedÓ by sales
people and other service people who clearly are not as focused on service as
they are focused on themselves in some way – their clothes, their
manners, their paycheck, their golf game that is at 4 PM so they need to leave
and come back later, or something else other than serving you and taking care
of your needs in the moment.
SURVIVAL-ORIENTED
OR PRACTICAL. This quality
has to do with knowing when to let go and quit, but it is much broader. To be successful in service and in
life, you must survive, and survive well.
This may
sound silly, but most people who want to be of service die too young, cutting
short their service. This applies
to doctors, parents, even children, teachers, lovers, and many others. So watch out for this essential quality.
To be of
service fully, you must survive and thrive. You must be practical, take a long-term view of life,
measure your strengths and weaknesses, take steps to care for your health and
your body, get plenty of sleep, not depend on doctors too much but rather learn
the truth about your health from this website and others, and so on.
This is all
about being a practical, clear-headed person and not a mush-head, air-head, space-cadet type of person who is not taking care
of himself or herself properly, and thus not surviving well.
I find this
problem is common among some doctors, for example. They do not know how to run an office, charge the right
amount of money, and keep good records, for example. As a result, they do not survive well and have many office-related
problems that take their time and energy away from their service.
Another
common example is found in church volunteers, often. They sit and eat cookies and cake, and wonder why they are
tired, overweight and really do not do as good a job as they could if they
cared more for their health and were more practical about their service.
Leaders in
service must deal with this issue, such as pastors, rabbis, priests, company
executives, and government officials.
If they are not practical and survival-oriented, they become ill, tired,
bored, discouraged, and usually die young, cutting short their service.
Following a
complete development program is an excellent step in the right direction. Many articles on this website discuss this
approach to health and healing. It
teaches self-discipline, basic knowledge about the body and health, and sets
one on the proper course.
HONEST. You will find that to truly be of
service, brutal honesty is quite important. Honesty is not easy!
It means being honest and authentic with yourself,
first, and being honest with others to the greatest extent possible.
It means you
must guard against little lies, exaggerations and deceptions that we are all
tempted with to get what we want.
It also means to watch out for little lies you tell yourself to make you
feel better, or to avoid discouragement.
It means you
must watch out for little untruths you spread around about your enemies, for
example, because you think this will weaken them. It may weaken them, but often they backfire on you when the
truth is found out and you are found out to be a liar. Honesty is thus a difficult lesson for
anyone who wishes to be of service.
Some people
are naturally honest, and women tend to be more honest than men. Others must learn this lesson the hard
way, so to speak, usually by failing at a task or being fired from a position
of authority for overstepping, leaking information, exaggerating or doing
something else unethical or dishonest.
DIRECT AND OPEN WITH COMMUNICATION. This is another critical
quality for the person who wants to perform service or be of service. This quality relates to honesty, but is
somewhat different. It has to do
with being direct and to the point, forthright, forthcoming, open and clear
with communication.
Many who
wish to be of service are not clear and open about their intentions and their
goals. As a result, the outcome is
not nearly as good. Others are
clear about their goals, but not about their methods, tactics, personal needs
or other needs, so they fail on that account.
So learning
to be organized, direct, open with communication,
forthright and forthcoming are very important qualities for the life of
service. If you notice you are
ÒhedgingÓ, hemming and hawing, or Òbeating around the bushÓ, let this go. Be clear and up front.
A
LOVER AT HEART. This is another
essential quality of the person of service. In the context of this article, being a lover means to take
life a bit easy, laugh at yourself now and then, be willing to give someone a
hug if it is helpful, and learn to relax with people.
It is a
quality of the fourth energy center in which you are able to get along with all
sorts of people and situations, and not get too serious or intense. You are able to balance your goals and
your service with simple human loving and kindness. If you can do this, you will succeed much better.
Just for
clarification, Òbeing a loverÓ in this context has nothing to do with sex or
romance. Neither is it about
giving or receiving hugs and kisses, giving gifts to people, or boosting
peopleÕs egos or your own ego in some way. In fact, these traits are its opposite.
Instead,
becoming a lover means one is committed to service, but not so serious that
things upset you. You will learn to
avoid becoming angry and defensive, or disabled by problems and failures, which
inevitably occur.
Becoming a
lover of yourself is also very important for your health. Otherwise you will take things too
seriously, Òburn outÓ, and become ill.
Lovers at heart
take time out for relaxation every day.
You must also take time for recreation and play. Play with your co-workers, with your
charges, or those you are helping.
Play with everyone and everything a little bit, to keep things from
getting too intense.
Intensity is
good when needed, and is part of the warrior spirit. However, there must also be relaxation, laughter, play and
just loving the moment. Do not
take anything too seriously.
HIGH INTEGRITY, OR THE
WARRIOR SPIRIT. Integrity is
a wonderful word to memorize and think about for hours. It is related to the word integrated,
which means put together properly and coordinated properly. It is also related to the word integer,
which means a whole number and not fractionated.
Integrity
must be the watchword of anyone who wishes to be of service. It means, in essence, that your entire
life - your lifestyle, your habits, your friends and all else fits together in
a wholesome, honest, meaningful way.
Integrity is
even more than this. It has to do
with wholeness and oneness. It
means that all aspects of your life work together harmoniously and
ethically. For more, read the
article entitled Integrity on this website.
A
PIONEERING SPIRIT.
This is another essential quality for anyone who wishes to be of
service. A pioneer is someone who is willing, if
needed, to go where no one has gone before.
A pioneer is
also a person who is willing to lead.
This, however, I will call a separate quality because it is somewhat
different.
A
pioneer is somewhat fearless, too.
After all, it is much easier to follow in the footsteps of others than
it is to blaze a trail through the mountains and the swamps of life.
So a pioneer
requires courage, fortitude, practicality, survival-orientation and some of the
other qualities listed above. All
of this is part of the pioneering spirit.
A LEADER. The person who wishes to be of
service is necessarily a leader because the world, at present and in the near
future, is not about service. So one must be
willing to be different, to be out in front of the masses in terms of your
ideas, your motives and your methods. You cannot be deterred because the
masses of people reject you, think you are strange, or even wish to harm you
for your ideas.
Being
a leader is about more than this, but this is the main idea here. To be of service does not mean you need
to be the head of the organization, the fund-raiser, the boss, or anything like
this. It just means you will be
separate from the masses and the crowds who mainly want to indulge their ego
selves.
ABOUT
WHAT, NOT ABOUT WHO OR WHOM. Service is always an impersonal subject, even though it is
usually about people. To be of
service, one must overcome personal biases, prejudices, racial, religious
stereotyping, and other prejudices such as what a person should look like, talk
like, eat, or other personal habits.
This
is actually a critical quality of service. You will not succeed if your entire group or staff or
organization must fit some mold and cannot be flexible. Flexibility is another quality of
service related to the idea of knowing when to let go.
This quality
of making it about what, not who, is important because most people have personal
agendas and biases, whether they realize it or not. These always get in the way of true
service.
One
way around these is to focus on the spiritual or non-physical side of
life. In other words, underneath
our skin and all other trapping such as clothing, material goods and the rest,
we are all spirits, and all one.
Anyone who is willing to lend a hand is welcome.
SMOOTHNESS. This
is a wonderful quality that just means that a person can handle bumps in the
road without becoming too unhappy or upset. It also means a quality that can smooth out troubles that
others are having, which enables work to go forward much more swiftly and
smoothly.
SKILLED
AND COMPETENT. This is a
large stumbling block for many who wish to be of service. Many people would like to help out, but
they lack the experience and skills to really help in the way in which they
would like. As a result, they
cannot find employment, or their help is less than ideal.
The answer
is to obtain skills, read up on your area of expertise, stay abreast of new
developments in your field, take simple jobs that build your skills and
competence, and practice your skills often.
Some people
do not want to learn, believing that they should be able to somehow just do
everything the first time they try it.
This is never the case, however.
Learning and practicing skills is definitely always needed for most
service, and is helpful in all cases.
COOPERATIVE,
MEANING ABLE TO GET ALONG WELL WITH OTHERS. This quality is absolutely
essential. It is contained in the
other qualities, but perhaps it is best listed separately. Getting along with others requires a
relaxed quality, a lack of harshness, some tact, and the ability to avoid
getting caught in personal prejudices.
It also
requires that a person be open to the ideas and creative efforts of
others. Only in this way can a
group or team work together creatively.
WHO CAN BE OF SERVICE?
Absolutely
everyone can live a life of service.
This can begin when a person is in his teens, or younger. In fact, many stories fill the news of
young people, even in elementary school, who decide at this young age that they
will assist poor children in other nations, or something similar. They sometimes amaze everyone with the
amount of money they raise, or items they create.
In fact,
nothing can deter a person who wants to be of service – not disease,
poverty, insufficient skills or anything else.
IV. CAN SERVICE BE A WAY
OF LIFE?
Some people
think of service as something to do in oneÕs spare time, once in a while, on
weekends, or on a mission with the church. However, service can and should be a way of life.
What is service as a way of life?
Service as a way of life means asking yourself
continuously, ÒIs this helping my service to humanity and to God?Ó This will go a long way to keeping you
safe and happy.
Service as a
way of life affects every moment of every waking hour, and even during your
sleep, as you can ask for dreams while asleep that will guide your
service.
Service as a
way of life does not mean a particular career or activity. You can be a student, a mother, a
father, an office worker, or anything else. It just means you view your entire life as one based around
service.
Here are
some qualities of service as a way of life:
1. All the time
thinking of ways to assist others, and how to assist the awakening of mankind.
2. All the
time thinking like a service person, as explained above, such as thinking in
terms of the whole system, thinking like a warrior, like a pioneer, focused,
with honesty, integrity, and some ruthlessness.
3. Thinking
about all the qualities of service all of the time.
4.
Constructing a lifestyle or way of living that supports the above, and
following through with it. This
will need to include many facets of your life such as the friends you spend
time with, where you live, how you eat, how much money you spend on clothing
and entertainment, and much more.
It might
mean that you must watch the television news each day, even though you donÕt
like it, so that you remain informed about the dayÕs events. However, it might also mean turning off
the television so as not to waste time with it.
It means you
will go to bed early every night, even Saturday night, so that you will be
fresh and have enough energy each day to carry on your life of service. It may mean you will forego the parties
and other distractions that really just waste peopleÕs time so that you can
focus better on what matters in life – the service that is your
life. This is what service as a
way of life entails.
WHY LIVE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE AS ONE OF SERVICE?
1. It is
great fun.
2. It
works. This means it is rewarding,
pays well, creates wonderful friendships, brings lots of love, and more.
3. It will
move you forward in your mental and spiritual development faster than anything
else you can do, other than eating well and caring well for the body.
4. It
provides protection from time-wasting, boredom,
laziness, getting in with the wrong crowd, and other hazards of life.
5. It is Òin
the grooveÓ or Òin the zoneÓ. This
means that, whether you believe it or not, human beings are built to be of
service - to each other, to humanity, and to God or to the universe.
Therefore,
if you choose this way of life, you are following your heartÕs deepest desire,
even if it does not feel that way at times.
A
FEW EXAMPLES OF HOW TO SET UP YOUR LIFE FOR SERVICE
Your
home. It should not be
so large you have to spend money having it cleaned, and it should be simple
enough so it is not costly to maintain.
It should also be built to be safe so you can relax at home.
Your
friends. They need to be people whom you can count upon to help you
with your service. They should not
be people who demand your time too much, or waste your time with silly music,
movies or other distractions.
They should also comfort you when things are rough, and be able to
laugh with you and share your successes and trials. They should be there when you need them, not just when they
feel like coming over, and they must respect your dignity, your privacy, your
health interests and everything else you hold dear.
Even
your vehicle. If you have a vehicle, it should not be too flashy, easy to steal,
or too costly to maintain.
Keep it in good working order.
It must be there for you, be comfortable enough
to feel good in, and be safe.
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