How many of you cringe when you pull a Jury Summons from your mailbox? Does panic ensue as you think of the many ways it will impact your life? Things like…

1. It’s inconvenient. You have to get up early and fight rush hour traffic to get downtown.
2. It’s interfering. It interrupts your life and plans for the day. You don’t get to do what you prefer to do.
3. It’s uncomfortable. You encounter people you don’t know who may be of a different socio-economic status than you and are forced to interact with them.
4. It’s costly. You spend a day, or more, giving your time away (unless your employer is willing to pay you). In my county they compensate you with a whopping $15 a day.
5. It’s time-consuming. You sit around all day, potentially doing nothing of any self-fulfilling merit. Basically wasting your time.
6. It’s tiresome. Waiting………..
7. It’s difficult. You are placed in the uncomfortable position of making a judgement about a case radically affecting someone’s life positively or negatively.

Do you prepare your excuse, fill out your hardship form, and then desperately hope to be released? After all, you’re given the opportunity to get out of it, so why not? Who wants to serve on Jury Duty? For that matter, why do people, in general, look for ways to avoid any number of “duties”?

The root of the problem is we separate duty from heart, emotion, and passion and make it something we do because we have to, not to benefit others and ourselves along the way. This same sentiment is even expressed in the definition: a task a person is bound to perform for moral or legal reasons. We look at duty through mirrored lenses and ask, “How will it effect me?”, rather than seeing duty as something we have the privilege to do.

We need to be more passionately committed to duty, like the volunteers of World War 2. None of those men and women wanted to leave their loved ones and face death on the other side of the world, but they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice because they were fervently devoted to duty. Many of the unqualified skirted the requirements because they were so ardently connected with this duty.

Let’s look at this as it relates to serving others. The duty of service involves sacrifice. This is difficult if we aren’t emotionally invested in the duty we are bound to perform, because just like our kids, no one likes to be told what they have to do, we want to choose for ourselves and most choices we make are based on emotion. In fact, just like jury duty, we may have pre-arranged excuses to absolve ourselves from service.

So let’s flip those negative excuses around and discover 7 positive ways to view the duty of service:

1. It’s Beneficial. The lives of so many can be touched by our efforts, great or small.
2. It’s a Continuation. Service should be a natural flow from what you are already doing, putting others before yourself.
3. It’s Comforting. A powerful peace will overwhelm your heart.
4. It’s Priceless. It’s more blessed to give than receive.
5. It’s Available. There are so many opportunities. You don’t have to look very long to find a good fit for you.
6. It’s Exhilarating. Service is selfless, but it’s amazing how good it makes you feel.
7. It’s Character-Building. We only grow when we overcome obstacles. Look duty in the eyes and accomplish great things.

Become intensely adhered to duty and you will serve in amazing ways.  What motivates you to satisfy the duty in your life?