Light the World

Well, I did it. I did 24 acts of service in 24 days...and I'm planning to do my final act of service tomorrow.

I learned a lot. I learned something about myself, which is that I serve people more than I think I do. There were days when I would do something for someone automatically, only to realize later that I had done an act of service. I'd sort of expected to have the opposite experience, where I was constantly forgetting to do an act of service each day. However, that wasn't the case. I can still do better! But it was heartening to realize that maybe I'm not the selfish brat I sometimes think I am.

I learned something about service itself. I had a couple of back-and-forths during this initiative about the ethics of doing an act of service but then sharing it online. For sure, that's not the usual way service ought to work. People don't need to know that you've served. In fact, it's often better if they don't. However, at some points during this initiative, I felt like the real service wasn't the service...the real service was sharing the service. Does that make sense? It seemed that the initiative was to inspire other people by showing them that there's still good in the world. Also to remind them of the true meaning of Christmas, and that the best way to show love for the Savior is often to show love to others. At least, that's how I interpret it.