Lowering Ourselves to Service: Chapel Reflection with Rochelle Visser

On a bright, snowy late-November day, Rochelle Visser brought summer camp to the Vos Chapel.

“I can’t use a dunk tank, I can’t take you tubing, but I can transport you to Bible Hour at summer camp to teach you about living a life of service,” the Director of Ministry at Camp Michawana said with a wide smile.

She began by leading a lively call-and-response exercise using Philippians 2:5-8, to ripples of laughter from the audience.

“When we get to your echo part, we are remembering what Jesus did. He is God who showed us how to become servants,” she emphasized.

Enthusiasm for her message continued as she moved onto her next exercise, which involved using Barbie dolls to illustrate Jesus’ life of service.

Visser asked her listeners to imagine that the dolls were created by her with plenty of space to live and play. But instead of happily living the way that was intended, they rebelled against her design to their own detriment.

“If they wouldn’t listen to me, the ultimate way that I could love them, the ultimate way that I could serve them, would be to become one of them so that I could reach them,” she said.

The most important aspect of living this kind of a servant’s life, she said, is not the deeds we accomplish, but the attitude that is behind them.

Like Jesus, Visser added, we shouldn’t let our rank or position in society allow us to become overly self-important. Instead, we should also be willing to take on any act of service, no matter how uncomfortable or beneath us it may seem.

“It’s not about guilt or obligation. God is inviting us to live the good life He designed for us. Sometimes service is saying no to yourself and your preferences and being willing to do what Jesus would do,” she emphasized.

When we step into a servant’s life the way Jesus modeled for us, she said, we will be changed along with the world around us.

“If Jesus lowered Himself, that means you are loved. If He lowered Himself and you lower yourself, others can know the love of God,” Visser said.