Always ready to serve

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the October 2010 Conference.

Sam and I were talking recently about finding one's "purpose in life." Some people feel strong pulls to do important things—adopt foster children, start up non-profit organizations, coordinate humanitarian efforts. Some people feel called to move from their comfortable lives to serve in distant places. Some people seem asked to endure greater-than-usual tragedies. There are so many people who have purposes we can see and admire. Of course to some extent, we know, everyone faces times when they have to rise to a calling or a purpose they feel unqualified for. Specific challenges or responsibilities often come looking for us whether we want them or not. And yet—Sam and I were saying, even knowing this, that often in regular life there seems to be no specific purpose in front of us, beyond "just keep trying to be good." There seems nothing epic or interesting about it. Parenthood. Serving in the church. Going to work and raising the kids and trying to keep on top of your responsibilities. In this normalcy, it's easy to feel unimportant or secondary to God's work (even when we know there really IS no "secondary"). It's easy to wonder if we should be finding something grander to contribute—or to ask why we aren't already being given some more obvious directive from God. 

It's not that we want to be "seen of men." Sam and I both grew up with a core belief that the best kind of saint is one who serves quietly and continuously, lifting where he stands. We saw examples of such people all around us in our families and wards when we were young, and we aspired to be like them. But, perhaps because the people doing impressive and important work are also often good, faithful, humble people, we still sometimes feel that sense of insignificance in comparison.

This talk by President Uchtdorf made me think about all these things again. I love his remedy for those feelings of being less-important or unpurposeful:

We are servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are not given [our reponsibilities] so that we can take our bows and bask in praise. We are here to roll up our sleeves and go to work. We are enlisted in no ordinary task. We are called to prepare the world for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We seek not our own honor but give praise and glory to God. We know that the contribution we can make by ourselves is small; nevertheless, as we exercise the power of the priesthood in righteousness, God can cause a great and marvelous work to come forth through our efforts. We must learn, as Moses did, that “man is nothing” by himself but that “with God all things are possible.” …

Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman. …

I once owned a pen that I loved to use during my career as an airline captain. By simply turning the shaft, I could choose one of four colors. The pen did not complain when I wanted to use red ink instead of blue. It did not say to me, “I would rather not write after 10:00 p.m., in heavy fog, or at high altitudes.” The pen did not say, “Use me only for important documents, not for the daily mundane tasks.” With greatest reliability it performed every task I needed, no matter how important or insignificant. It was always ready to serve.

In a similar way we are tools in the hands of God. When our heart is in the right place, we do not complain that our assigned task is unworthy of our abilities. We gladly serve wherever we are asked. When we do this, the Lord can use us in ways beyond our understanding to accomplish His work.

It's so good to keep this dichotomy in mind, of our relative insignificance but also our grand purpose—the grand purpose all of us are part of—preparing for Jesus' Second Coming. And, once one has contemplated that, there's not much benefit in fretting over it, mulling over and over "What is my purpose? What is my importance? What is my value?"—but instead, we can find our answers and our purpose and our peace in just forgetting ourselves in the service of God and  our fellowman.