THE VALUE OF SERVICE

If there is anything that 2021 has taught us it is the need for service. Our society has become a more service-oriented world than ever before. Today, we order food, and someone brings it. We order gifts online and a person drops it at our door. We pull up in the pickup line, and soon an overworked employee hauls our groceries to the car. Even as more and more workers have opted to work from home, we learn the value of meeting deadlines and serving up content. Those of us who work in these areas have had to swallow a lot of pride, reminding ourselves each day that even simple acts of service make the world go around.

Don’t get me wrong. The pandemic has forced our world into this kind of model. We have had to convert to a service-driven economy because we needed it to survive. And that’s the rub, isn’t it? We need servants, but we despise them. Oh, we may smile and remember to say our thank you’s to their faces, but deep down, in our heart of hearts we think that these folks are beneath us. We blame the girl bringing our groceries out that they had to substitute our mac and cheese for the Velveeta we truly wanted. We fire out nasty emails when our online order gets lost. We whine and berate the door dasher when our drink seems watered down. We see them not as people trying to work hard to survive in a very difficult world, but as the unfortunate ones who got laid off from their career and had to settle for the only job they could find, delivering slop to people constantly pushing the ‘feed me’ button.

We act so privileged and entitled, so boujee. After all, THEY are bringing stuff to us. THEY are at our beck and call. THEY carry our groceries, fix our cars, deliver our packages. We treat them as if they were the invisible worker bee whose activity it is to feed the queen. We do not care about them one iota other than if they rush to our doorstep with hot food in hand. This Door Dash society has only deepened the divide between rich and poor, the haves and have nots, between those who feel empowered and those who may never be.

And while there is a lot more to being a servant than just delivering somebody’s nachos, we forget that every day there are a thousand ways for us to be a servant to those around us. Our families, friends, and coworkers need us to humble ourselves and serve up some kindness and appreciation. Perhaps even right now, there is an opportunity for you stop being fed and start feeding others. A chance to do something unexpected for that person right in front of you. And to do it without debating about who should get the credit. Just imagine what kind of transformation true service might force on our world if everyone were looking for ways to empower and encourage each other.

This year, I want to be more mindful of the person who is serving me, and more than that, I want to be kind of person who is willing to humble myself and serve others. Because the truth is that the person who desires to be great should be last. A person aiming for greatness doesn’t get so frantic about a few cold fries, but instead learns to value the essential worker behind the wrappers. Because the truth is, most of them know more about service than any of us ever will.