"Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day….what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." – 2 Corinthians 4:16

   I can't remember the last time I left the house without checking my appearance in the mirror. Most likely it was when I was a child more interested in how fast I could get outside to play than in whether my hair was combed.

   When we notice, in the glass, signs of our "wasting away" most of us think about how to cover or change these reminders that our earthly journey is nearing its end. The words of the Apostle Paul remind us that anxieties over death are misplaced. "…what cannot be seen is eternal."

   The most magical thing about the Servant's Heart is that loving caregivers focus not on the ego that stares back at them each morning from the mirror. Instead, they look with their heart's eyes on the Beauty of the eternal spirit that lives within. 

   For proof of this we need merely look at the lives of our best known caregivers. It's hard to imagine Jesus checking his reflection in the surface of the Dead Sea to see if he looked okay. No one thinks of the simply dressed Peter and Paul, not to mention Mohammad and the Buddha, as people who focused on appearance. Mother Theresa and Gandhi were comfortable in the wrinkled and vulnerable bodies.

   Each of these understood the temporal nature of their earthly journey. Each, by his or her life, sent a message to us that love and caring matter more than fine cars and expensive make-up.

   But, most who live their lives as true servants are people we don't hear about. (Fame may fall on the shoulders of a saint, but only the ego seeks fame.)

   Like the rest of us, caregivers with a Servant's Heart (including the famous saints) are caught in time's web and the pressures of the body during their lives. This is why true servants know how to heal.

   Loving servants can reach out to our suffering because they are in touch with their own. Their alignment with God's Love allows light to pass through them to those of us in need.

   The Servant's Heart is the greatest gift we can have. It lives within us all.

   Yet, Radical Loving Care can only shine through us into this world when we look beyond the mirror. 

-Reverend Erie Chapman