Thank you, Sweets.

These words have totally changed my life.

Everyday I have the blessing of being able to serve. And not just serving a meal or sweeping a floor but I'm allowed to meet the hearts of my friends and see to the core of their hurts and joys. Unmasked and unashamed. And my friend says "Thanks you, Sweets." and he means it. Sometimes it blesses me so much that I'm overwhelmed with love and I just weep grateful tears.

He's teaching me that to be truly served is to make yourself fully vulnerable to another person. And that is a deeply personal gift. A gift that blesses the served, but has the power to bless and transform the server as well.

For me to really allow my heart to be served is to have so much trust not in the other but in Jesus. It's really hard. To trust not because the other person has earned it, but because of a radical commitment to a gracious God.

I'm reminded of John 12:1-3, Where Mary anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.

Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently
raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to
dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the
table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils,
anointed and massaged Jesus' feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The
fragrance of the oils filled the house.

Jesus served and was served. Deeply. As Worship. Not a surface gesture. Service is a fragrance pleasing to God. It should be the distinctive aroma of his people and the church.