Service

  

Chapter 21

Service

Construction Stage 2.5   Earthquake and Weatherproofing

SAL Model Stage 2.5   Service

 "Life's most persistent question is: 'What are YOU doing for others.'"

—Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Service is akin to earthquake- and weather-proofing a skyscraper's foundation and superstructure. 

The better equipped a skyscraper is to withstand weather events and natural disasters, the longer it will last. Likewise, the more freely you give of your time and resources to others, the more you will enrich your own life and relationships, which can serve you well as a bulwark against loneliness—and/or a safety net when things turn tricky or tragic in your own career or life. 

Acts of service are essential in forming enduring relationships built on a foundation of mutual love and respect. Such relationships provide you with a cornucopia of fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction. They also offer a strong support network that you can turn to when things get tough and you find yourself in need of comfort, companionship, and help from others.  

Service is more than just a nice thing to do that may carry advantages and benefits down the road. 

Service is an Existential Duty and a prerequisite to reaching higher levels of Existential Growth.

Those who are content to hang around the lower levels of the SAL Hierarchy are usually selfish people who aren't interested in providing service to others. At lower and middle levels, self-action leaders might serve primarily out of a sense of duty, obligation, or an intellectual assent that they must serve others to get certain things for themselves. At the higher levels, however, self-action leaders serve out of a genuine desire to help others and bless their lives in any way they can. These mature self-action leaders willingly and joyfully serve others because they genuinely care about them and experience fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction by showing love and giving service to others.

Regardless what your current Existential Standing is (or isn't), if you don't feel like serving others, do it anyway. If you do something that is right out of duty for long enough, you'll often develop a natural inclination for doing it over time. Then, if you persist in service, the time will come when you will be so predisposed to helping others that you will perform it willingly, joyfully, and enthusiastically.

Rather than something you have to do, service will become something you want to do.  

There are countless ways and means of serving other people. Service can be packaged in elaborate relief efforts following natural disasters, death, or other personal or collective calamities or tragedies. Service can be organized, scheduled, regimented, and perpetual. It can also be flexible, spontaneous, creative, and temporary. 

Some service is directed toward the many. 

Other service is devoted to the few, or even the one. 

Some service requires money, or time, or effort, while other service may require a combination of the three. Sometimes service is great and requires much personal planning and sacrifice over time. Other times it is small and requires spontaneous thoughtfulness, compassion, and quick thinking.  

Some service is acted upon; some service is spoken; and some service can come by simply refraining from doing or saying something that would be unnecessary or unkind. In the famous words of Thumper the Rabbit—from Disney's animated feature film, Bambi—"if you can't say something nice, don't say nuthin' at all!" (1)  

'If you can't say somthin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all."

—Thumper

(From Disney's "Bambi") 

No matter how it may be demonstrated or packaged, all service has a basic, three-pronged purpose: 

1.  To benefit one's fellows
2.  To demonstrate love to others
3.  To promote the Existential Growth of oneself and others.  

The Service Heart of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
1809-1865

Years ago, I listened to Doris Kearns Goodwin's award-winning book, Team of Rivals, on CD. Of the many interesting facts and stories recounted in that audio recording, there is one anecdote that sticks out in my long-term memory far above any of the others. The story involved President Abraham Lincoln's loving and service-hearted relationship toward his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, who had once been a bitter rival of Lincoln's during the Republican Primary election.  

Seward's journey to political prominence was very different from Lincoln's. Unlike Abraham, William was born into wealth and privilege and had received a sterling formal education growing up. Like Lincoln, Seward practiced law and entered politics while still a young man. Unlike Abraham, William was widely considered to be the   Republican front runner for President leading up to the 1860 Presidential election. 

It was therefore a huge surprise to many—and a colossal disappointment to Seward—when Lincoln made a late surge from the back-of-the-pack to pass Seward and the rest of his rivals to win the Republican nomination, and later, the Presidency. One might imagine Seward's bitterness at this unexpected failure to defeat someone as backwoodsy, homespun, and relatively obscure as Lincoln was. 

William H. Seward
1801-1872

However, once in office, Lincoln set out proactively to mend the divide with his former political rivals by inviting several of them to join his administration and serve in the high-ranking positions of his Presidential Cabinet.

William Seward was the foremost of these rivals so selected. 

Lincoln asked him to serve in arguably the most important, influential, powerful, and prestigious position of all: Secretary of State. Despite his bitter feelings toward Lincoln, Seward accepted the honor and privilege and was sworn in as his nation's 24th Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln.  

Over the next four (4) years, the United States passed through a horrific and bloody civil war. As Lincoln worked with Seward through this awful conflict, he gradually earned the admiration and respect of his former rival. Over time, this professional regard developed further into a genuine personal friendship. This fact was perhaps never more poignantly illustrated than in a simple, yet telling story. 

Nine days before Lincoln's death, Seward was involved in a serious carriage accident that left him badly injured and unconscious. President Lincoln was not in Washington when the accident occurred, but according to Goodwin:

"Directly upon his return to Washington, Lincoln went to Seward's bedside ... [where he] stretched out on the bed ... side by side with Seward ... supporting his head with his hand ... to continue the conversation more intimately. ... [They continued in this manner until] Seward had fallen into a much-needed sleep, [after which] Lincoln quietly got up and left the room." (2)

Lincoln was assassinated soon thereafter. Seward was still recovering from his injuries and it was decided that Seward be spared the news because "the doctors feared that he could not sustain the shock." (3)

Goodwin describes what happened next.

"On Easter Sunday ... as [Seward] looked out the window toward Lafayette Park, he noticed the War Department flag at half-mast. 'He gazed awhile,' Noah Brooks reported, 'then, turning to his attendant, he announced, The President is dead.' The attendant tried to deny it, but Seward knew with grim certainty. 'If he had been alive, he would have been the first one to call on me,' he said, 'but he has not been here, nor has he sent to know how I am, and there's the flag at half-mast.' He lay back on the bed, 'the great tears coursing down his gashed cheeks, and the dreadful truth sinking into his mind.' His [former rival turned] good friend, his captain and chief, was dead."

"'The history of governments,' John Hay later observed, 'affords few instances of an official connection hallowed by a friendship so absolute and sincere as that which existed between these two magnanimous spirits. Lincoln had snatched away from Seward at Chicago [the site of the Republican Primary election] the prize of a laborious life-time, when it seemed within his grasp. Yet Seward was the first man named in his Cabinet and the first who acknowledged [Lincoln's] personal preeminence. ... From the beginning of the Administration to that dark and terrible hour ... there was no shadow of jealousy or doubt [that] ever disturbed their mutual confidence and regard.'" (4)

That, my friends and fellow self-action leaders, is what authentic friendship—and SERVICE—is all about.

How is such an authentic, pure, and guileless friendship created? It can only be forged amidst the warm and friendly firelight of charitable and selfless SERVICE. Abraham Lincoln understood this, and gave his life in the service of his fellowmen and country. 

All self-action leaders would do well to follow his example.  

SAL Master Challenge

EXERCISE  #20

Complete 25 cumulative hours of service in your home, school, neighborhood, organization, community, church, etc. 

If you aren't sure what to do right off the bat, you can start off by simply walking outside your home and picking up trash. As you do so, you are bound to think of many other ideas of how you might provide further service to others. 

Hour 1:_____     Hour 2:_____     Hour 3:_____     Hour 4:_____     Hour 5:_____

Hour 6:_____     Hour 7:_____     Hour 8:_____     Hour 9:_____     Hour 10:_____

Hour 11:_____     Hour 12:_____     Hour 13:_____     Hour 14:_____     Hour 15:_____

Hour 16:_____     Hour 17:_____     Hour 18:_____     Hour 19:_____     Hour 20:_____

Hour 21:_____     Hour 22:_____     Hour 23:_____     Hour 24:_____     Hour 25:_____

I have completed the SAL Master Challenge EXERCISE #20

Your initials:__________         AP initials:__________

 

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

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Chapter 21 Notes

1.  Walt Disney's Bambi. (1942). Written by Felix Salten, Perce Pearce, and Larry Morey. 

2.  Goodwin, D.K. (2005) Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. Page 724-725.

3.  Ibid. 

4.  Goodwin, D.K. (2005) Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. Page 744-745.