A Mindset of Service
The world, society, civilization and all of us work best when we work together and help each other with a service mindset. There are those people–we all know at least one person who always seems to have the time to help someone else out. Often these people appear to have more energy than the average person. But maybe they really don’t have more energy than everyone else; maybe they just have a service mindset, and the energy to help out just comes from their motivation and mindset.
My father was one of those people whom everyone called upon when they needed help of some kind. He was an absolute genius when it came to fixing anything, and everyone knew it. He used his talents well, he worked extremely hard, and never hesitated a moment when he was called upon to lend a hand. He seldom was paid for his neighborly labors of love and kindness; it was an understanding and an unwritten code of conduct by which he lived to help out when needed. He received back much goodwill and gratefulness from those he helped as well as some occasional monetary rewards and some bartered trade in kind, but that was never his primary concern for serving. He was never famous, certainly not rich, and he lived and died in an ordinary way, and he was a man of honor and integrity, and I’m sure people remember him with gratitude.
Though he was not a religious man, and since spirituality was never really discussed with him, I really don’t know his personal thoughts, ideas, or his take on spirituality. I do remember a time, when I as a teenager, of around the age of 16 and was feeling that I knew it all, and tried to convince my father to go to church and to begin to follow a religious protocol of some sort.
I look back on that time period now from a position of considerably more wisdom and awe at my boldness and naitivety in thinking I could teach my father about life, religion and saving his soul.
I had so much to learn and still do, and really didn’t have a clue at that time. Even though my father was not a religious man, or even thought of spiritual concepts, at least that I am aware of, and yet, I am certain that his crossing to the other side more than 30 years ago was smooth and certain. For he had a service mindset, and that is how he lived his life every day.