I love physical labor. From a young age, I’ve enjoyed the satisfaction of a job well done. Hard work has never scared me. I see it as a challenge, an obstacle to overcome, and the reward is in completing the task.

At first, I retained this attitude when painting the children’s home in Kathmandu. I was excited by the idea, happy to get my hands dirty, and to sweat from something other than the heat. While this was not necessarily a bad attitude to have, God taught me a much more important lesson whole slinging paint around.

Success is not found simply in completing a task, but in how that task is completed. I wasn’t painting in order to make some rooms look good; I was painting as an act of service to others.

We are called to be servant leaders, with Christ being the ultimate example of what it means to lead by serving. When he got down on bended knees and washed his disciples feet, a task done by the lowliest of servants, he made it absolutely clear that he wasn’t doing it to simply make their feet clean. He was showing his followers that to lead, you must first serve.

When walking out of the children’s home dirty, sweaty and riddled with paint, there was a satisfaction of a job well done. But there was more satisfaction knowing that God had allowed me to do the job well.

– Ryan