For me, service is about filling a void that I don’t always realize is there.  It’s about going somewhere different, somewhere outside of my comfort zone, and trying to help people in a way that is bigger than myself. 

While in both Panama and Ghana with Global Brigades, I was blessed to be able to serve the communities in which we worked.  While in both places, we were able to set up medical clinics and see patients who otherwise would have been unable to receive medical care.  During the short time I was there, I was able to give patients the attention they so needed and so deserved.  I was able to open my arms and my heart to their medical concerns and their daily problems.  And I was able to put myself in a situation where my eyes were opened to see all that is left to be done in these beautiful and forgotten parts of the world. 

The amount of injustice and inequality I saw in both Panama and Ghana astounded me.  I expected to see unfairness, but I did not expect to be so blown away by it.  The people living in the communities in which we served lived lives of poverty, injustice, and indifference.  Their governments have, for what it’s worth, abandoned them.  They are looked after by no one, and the only people and agencies they have to rely on are their friends and their families, who are also suffering from the same poverty and indifference as they are. 

Adam Davis, author of the article, What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service, explains his view on service in a way different than my own.  Davis looks at service from a different viewpoint, from a stance of questioning peoples’ real motives behind serving others.  Davis believes that service is not always as simple as it seems, and people do not just serve for the betterment of humanity.

Davis’ dive into the meaning of service made me think deeper of why exactly I choose to serve others.  As Davis mentions, do I serve to raise myself up?  Or do I serve because I can imagine myself in the shoes of others?  For me, like for Davis, service is not that simple.  It is deeper than one meaning, one definition, and one classification.  I serve to fill a void that I don’t always realize is there.  I serve to step outside of my comfort zone.  And most of all, I serve to try to help others in a way that is bigger than myself.