These two verses, Phil 2:3-4, have been giving me a lump in my throat when reading them all week long. It's easy to look at activities as selfless love. For me, the extent of loving selflessly has been most apparent in my role as a father, and in my spiritual life in the form of religious activities.

There have been times when my needs or wants or ambitions have been set at a higher priority than those of my daughter. It's a fine line that we walk as adults between doing what we need to do to provide versus what we want to do to accelerate our career or jockey for position. These have been my primary focus for a long time. These have caused the late nights when that last email just can't wait and you have a smart phone so that you know when you have a reply. The confines of an office no longer apply; all the world is your place of business. Dinner tables, commutes, soccer games, karate, whatever. So, in the act of providing, we are in essence taking away the benefit of those we are working to provide for and actually tip-toeing into the very warning contained in these two scriptures. Don't get me wrong - - I'm a huge fan of success and being the best in your field and making money - - however, it's too easy to blur the lines between work and family. We often give our best from 7am-7pm professionally (and at times that's a short day) and then those who love you most get whatever is left over. I've done it. A lot.

We also encounter the opposite side of the coin in our spiritual lives. We can evaluate our degree of selfless love in the way that we give of our time, talent, or financial resources as they relate to religious activities. We have all given money or raked leaves or packed food boxes or visited nursing homes as a part of giving back to the community and advancing the kingdom. These are all great things as long as our hearts and intentions are in the right place at the right time. Knowing that we can't earn our salvation, simply doing "works" as a metric for how "saved" we are is taken out of the equation. However, what remains is the perception others will have of us within the frame of how visible or sizable our work is.

Do we serve often enough so that people know we are serving, or do we serve as often as we can because it makes our hearts beat faster? As a volunteer artist on the "big stage" at the "big church," I have - on several occasions - had to check my intentions. Knowing that several thousand people see me at church, let alone whoever else around the world may see the service online, make a recipe for some sort of ego or star complex. It may sound silly, but it is a very real possibility given the nature of what we do. So, when I step back and realize that my role within the music elements of a service are not at all about me, the only other possibility left is God and the people that matter to him. My role is to serve them, to help connect them to God through the music, whether in worship or arts package songs. If it's about me, then I cannot possibly connect anyone to God... not even myself. I become a barrier.

I believe this applies to any role or capacity in any and all areas of our lives as a representative of Christ. It has to be all about Him and the people we are serving. If we are connected to Christ, detached from self, then and only then can we connect others to Christ. That's our role. That becomes our true gain. That's living Christ's humility and love.

Philippians 2:3-4