The Strange Thing About Service

On Thursday of last week, Andrews University held its annual day of service–coined Change Day. Students were given the opportunity to choose from a selection of various service projects. Some of these projects included painting fire hydrants, assisting with tasks at a women’s shelter, and packing gifts for incarcerated individuals.

In reflecting on the events of Change Day, it occurred to me that service seems to be an integral part of human functioning. Though the motives behind our service-based actions may be variable, we all engage with them in some way. Service, as it will be discussed in this article, is simply the act of helping or doing work for another. This can be anything from holding the door open for someone coming behind you to living a life dedicated to solving the global food crisis. Because the concept of service is so broad–containing numerous layers, motivations, and other nuances–how do we extract purpose from the service in which we engage? What exactly is it that makes what we do for others meaningful?

I believe that part of what validates the service we take part in is the rationale for why we are doing what we are doing. I have found it to be the case that, for many (myself included), the desire to perform acts of service often comes from the natural human propensity toward self-centeredness. This can manifest itself in the form of us engaging in service with the ultimate goal of having others view us in a more altruistic light; to have people look at us and think wow, they’re a really good person for doing that. While this motivation may not be the reason for every act of service we perform, I think most of us can admit that this line of thinking has affected us at some point in our lives.

Still, there are others of us who conclude that we do good things because, at our core, we are genuinely good people. We believe that our intrinsic sense of compassion for humanity is the foundation for our subtly philanthropic acts of kindness. It recently came to me, however, that even the purest of intentions may not be entirely pure–at least not in the sense that we typically consider things pure. Here’s why: I am not of the persuasion that humans are capable of putting forth any amount of energy into something that does not affect us personally. Meaning, we only ever do service because, on some level, it fulfills a need that we have. These needs can include the need to fulfill the innate desire for interpersonal connection, the need to feel needed,  or the need to “do the right thing” as it relates to our own philosophical paradigm.

In my own life, I have seen this play out in the form of feeling immense emotional discomfort at the pain of others. Being a self-proclaimed empath, it has almost made me think highly of myself because I feel so much internal pull to alleviate the pain of those around me. However, in developing this new perspective, I realized that my desire to alleviate another's pain only stems from the emotional discomfort I feel within myself. Yes, that discomfort may be triggered by an external source, but it is only my own unrest that truly causes me to act. Should I not experience any internal unrest at the observing of another’s plight, I would never do anything to help mitigate that plight.

I found this perspective to be quite disheartening when I first pondered it. Are we all egotistical to the point that if we are not emotionally or otherwise triggered, we will not do anything purely for the sake of helping another? What I have now realized, however, is that this phenomenon is merely an expression of what it means to be human. The term empathy is used to describe the ability to place one’s self in the proverbial shoes of another. Our tendency to connect ourselves with another’s experience, by imploring empathy, is what makes our service meaningful. We are hardwired for connection. Being consciously aware of this aspect of our humanity can be the first step in finding  a deeper appreciation for service.