Ricky Dillard - Glad To Be In The Service Lyrics

Video

Glad To Be In The Service (Live At Haven Of Rest Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, IL...

Meaning & Inspiration

I keep hearing that line about how He didn't have to let me live, and it just sits heavy in my gut. It’s simple, maybe too simple, but it hits on something I think we forget most days—that every breath is a gift we aren't exactly owed. It pulls me back to Lamentations where it talks about His mercies being new every morning. If I’m honest, I wake up expecting to be here, expecting the clock to keep ticking like it’s my right. But then I hear this and I’m forced to sit with the reality that, yeah, He could’ve said no. He could’ve closed the book on my day yesterday, and I wouldn’t have had a say in it.

There’s this tension though, isn’t there? Being glad to be "in the service" feels like a natural response to being kept alive, like a thank-you note written in a life lived for Him. It feels like what Paul was getting at when he begged us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. It’s like, if He spared me, the only logical place for me to be is right here, doing whatever He calls service. But I find myself wondering if I’m really doing that, or if I’m just singing the words because they sound good in a choir. Is being in the service just about being in the building, or is it about that actual posture of surrender? I don't know. I suppose if I’m truly glad He let me live, my whole life has to change, not just my Sunday mornings. It’s uncomfortable to think that maybe I treat His mercy like it’s cheap, something I can just use up without actually bowing my head or my heart. I keep repeating those words, hoping they actually sink in past my throat and into the stuff I’m trying to hide.