For The Ways of God. Reflections on our spiritual quest: The Way of Service

In the first article of this series I briefly described the five paths that I have identified in the search for our encounter with God. On this occasion I will expand my findings on the path of service, which is that of unconditional love of neighbor, of giving help without being requested. This is the way of compassion, of doing what is within our reach to avoid the suffering of others and of solidarity with the most vulnerable. Who chooses the path of service has a natural and spontaneous disposition to meet the needs and do good to other people. He has a selfless attitude, whose reward is the internal satisfaction of providing a service. In many cases, this path is a complement to the followers of other paths, through which they achieve their maximum desire to finally serve God. In this case, when I say God, I mean the personal God of monotheistic religions or the deity or the ultimate spiritual representative of other religions or beliefs.

People who walk this path are always attentive to any opportunity to help. They are humble, generous, proactive, collaborative and, in general, go beyond what is expected of them, renouncing their own comfort for the benefit of others.

How we move forward and what obstacles we can find in the way of service

I think that the door that opens the path of service is goodness. It is the genuine desire to do good without expecting anything in return.

Usually, this tour begins with the service of close friends, such as caring for a friend, a sick family member or providing support in solving a problem. Sometimes we serve a stranger, but it is not the most common, although it is an excellent indication that you have this virtue.

In this journey we can find several obstacles. What we usually find first is the lack of time to devote to providing a service, either for work or other commitments. Those who really have this vocation will always be willing to sacrifice part of the time they dedicate themselves to use in serving others. If we fail to overcome this difficulty, we have to continue our search for other roads that require less delivery.

When overcoming the lack of time, another obstacle that we must overcome is pride, in its connotation of arrogance and superiority, which makes us feel above our fellow men. The big problem with this kind of pride is that it kills compassion, which is the source that fuels the desire to avoid the suffering of others. If pride prevents us from moving forward in this way, we must overcome it or take one of the other paths.

Overcome the first obstacles, we can expand our range of action beyond our relatives or acquaintances. We will be ready to provide community services, participate in associations that help the most vulnerable in society, such as the elderly, abandoned children, the sick or the poor.

The next stage in this path is the service to the Being - or the supreme representative of our belief - and there are few who reach it. The main obstacle to achieving this is attachment, which is the belief of not being able to live without possessions. The strongest and most difficult attachment is that of the family. Only in some oriental cultures is the human being prepared to part with his family and devote himself to his spiritual growth. In the West we find this practice strange and even inhuman.

We also become attached to friends, material goods, our lifestyle and our ego, all possessions difficult to abandon to devote ourselves to God. If the attachment obstructs the path, it is advisable that we take the path of faith or knowledge, because in that of meditation it will also be difficult for us to move forward.

When we manage to overcome our attachment, we only have to overcome an obstacle before encountering God, which, as in the path of faith, is fear. On this occasion, it is the fear of not being kind enough to be accepted by the Supreme Being in our dedication to him. If this fear does not arise, we will finally have achieved the goal of our encounter with God.

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AUTHOR: Juan Sequera, author for the family of https://hermandadblanca.org/