
Service doesn’t sound very glitzy but just about everything humans do can be understood as providing service to one another.
When we are mindful – and heartful – of this, then we can approach greatness.
Service isn’t one size, one shape, one colour. It is as diverse as we are; the highest expression of our lives, it’s where we find meaning – I should say, where we make meaning: an expression of our freedom, mastery and purpose.
Great artists help people to look at their lives with fresh eyes.*
(Austin Kleon)
They are dreamwhisperers who awaken hope. They connect meaning to action. They craft narratives that release human energy. They make new maps that guide us into places where there are no paths.**
(Alex McManus)
Service changes lives, including the lives of those who serve. When we see this impact of what we uniquely do, we can take it from a skill to an art. Service is the surest way to greatness, rather than the fame we may have mistaken it for. Fame requires others to see, greatness only requires the one we serve to be present.
Erwin McManus makes the point that ambition and humility have become separated, but,
What we must do is bring the two universes of ambition and humility together since they were never intended to exist separately.^
Humility is the path to answering the question Who is my true Self? Ambition is the way we walk to hone this into service that is impactful.
There is a title we can wear with joy and pride: Servant.
(*From Austin Kleon’s Keep Going.)
(**From Alex McManus’ Makers of Fire – eBook version.)
(^From Erwin McManus’ The Way of the Warrior.)
You touch on something very important here!