A servant is someone that sets his life aside for the good of another. Typically, living a life of servanthood creates sacrifice and has a personal cost, either physically, financially, spiritually or emotionally. However, a willing servant is eager to serve, doing for others without reserve, because they have considered the cost.

Many volunteers start serving without considering the cost and that can lead to great frustration, anxiety and disappointment. They have come with expectations and expectations can quickly go awry. A sustainable volunteer learns that serving is worship to Jesus, not expecting anything in return, lots of patience, mistakes, miscommunication and a heaping of grace. The volunteer that is serving unto Jesus learns the deep truths of how desperate they long to love and matter and the great privilege they have to remind others of their own personal worth. The volunteer turned friend grows in love, bearing all things, hoping against hope, enduring, forgiving, nurturing, and overflowing with patience and kindness. The serving becomes a way of life, not a Love Does kit or a food box dropped at a front door. The Giver becomes the focus over the gift. The servant is humble, learning to be hidden in Christ. The volunteer has learned this valuable asset of transparency, brokenness, and admittance that they too do not have it all together. When real shows up and equality and friendship, then serving becomes genuine. The volunteer isn’t playing the part of the Hero and the recipient is no longer defined as a mooch. Man oh man, then being a servant gets good.

Unfortunately, many volunteers abort servanthood before they have experienced it. We get angry that the family receiving a food box has a nice television or an expensive vehicle, never realizing that the television was leased and the vehicle was borrowed from a friend. We get disappointed because the family we want to pray for will not open up and share something to pray about, never considering that as strangers we were prying into the deepest hurts of a mama’s heart. We get lost trying to find the address and waste an hour trying to find a place that never existed, not realizing someone made a mistake writing it down or entering it into the database. Do not misunderstand, all of our volunteers are awesome and are serving Jesus when they give their time. But most of us start out thinking the ride would be just a little smoother, that everything on the instruction sheet would go as planned, that people would be waiting to pour out their hearts and welcome friendship. Many of us thought it would be easy.

Nothing about laying down our lives for another person is easy. Ask Tim Linderman. Love costs, but he will tell you it’s always worth it. He has served people on the streets, in shelters, in the projects, in dilapidated apartments, in a mess. He’s served with his friends, his cousin, his wife and his girls. He has delivered food in freezing temps, pouring rain, and when it’s super hot and he would rather be in the AC. He’s steady, consistent and committed.

Tim Linderman lives every day with major health issues, in constant pain and sometimes struggling to walk. He battles degenerative conditions, but many in our community have no idea. See, his circumstances do not determine who he is in Jesus. He knows hauling heavy boxes and walking up a bunch of steps to deliver them is not his best decision for what it will cost him. Often he has to take a recovery day after he does food delivery because of the toil it takes on him physically. Does that stop him? No. He loves God and loves people more than he loves his own body.

Don’t be thinking Tim is some “goody-two-shoes.” He’s not. He’s a human like the rest of us, a sinner saved by grace. All this good seeping out of him is Jesus, it is not Tim. That’s the truth of all of us, the good in us is Jesus, the junk is us. So as you read about Tim, or any of our Better Togethers, remember their positive attributes are the Jesus we see in them. As for the Jesus in Tim…

He’s a warrior, a fighter. He is living for this moment. He’s not chasing some American Dream. He is making the moments he has intentionally count. He spends his weeks homeschooling his daughters. He is teaching them to hide truth in their heart, along with a good measure of math, science and literature. He is coming to community events, not because he feels like it, but because he is living to the full this day. He is listening intently to his friends and making the best restaurant lemonade for all the kids. He is pushing through hard to enjoy the carefree moments of BBQ with his fellas or inhaling some helium and talking like Mickey Mouse with a bunch of community kids. He is fighting through pain to be fully present with the people he loves.

Many of those people are his food delivery families. Maybe they know what it costs him to show up every month, to sit and listen well, to haul their food box, but if they are not super observant, they probably don’t know. They probably haven’t noticed because they are so thankful for his love for them that they rest right there. Rest in his love, that just so happens to be Jesus’ love flowing right through that man. They give over some of their burdens because he carries them willingly. They tell him the success stories and show him the furniture that God provided. Never knowing that sometimes that furniture came from his own house. They ask about his family and thank him for loving them. If they only had a clue, but he doesn’t love them to have a clue about him. He wants them to have a clue about Jesus, about the One that holds him when he feels discouraged, the One that saved him from himself, and the One that gives him an abundant life.

Often we grumble in our serving. We want faster results. We want to have cool stories to tell. We want to see people meet Jesus and transform in front of our very eyes. Sometimes those miracles do happen and we see impossible things happen, but sometimes the miracle is the steady and we can’t measure the result.

Jesus is that steady for us, when we give no good thing, when we don’t let him change us, when we still want what we want. He stays steady and waits for our hard heads. Tim shows us that a lot of times people need the steady, the consistency, the love, to know that he is their friend this month just like last month. The miracle is sometimes our steadfast obedience to believe the impossible, that we are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see. As his daughters see him serve, we can be sure that the fruit of his love will be passed on to them and hopefully the generations after them. They know their dad loves them and many others.

Grace Klein Community is better for having Tim Linderman as a vital member of our community. Not only is he committed to food delivery, his family leads out as secret givers who care for many tangible needs in this community. He is open handed, maybe more open handed by the day. God’s work in Him is spreading to be God’s hands and feet, not only in Birmingham, but all around the world.

A servant is someone that sets his life aside for the good of another. Typically, living a life of servanthood creates sacrifice and has a personal cost, either physically, financially, spiritually or emotionally. However, a willing servant is eager to serve, doing for others without reserve, because they have considered the cost.

Many volunteers start serving without considering the cost and that can lead to great frustration, anxiety and disappointment. They have come with expectations and expectations can quickly go awry. A sustainable volunteer learns that serving is worship to Jesus, not expecting anything in return, lots of patience, mistakes, miscommunication and a heaping of grace. The volunteer that is serving unto Jesus learns the deep truths of how desperate they long to love and matter and the great privilege they have to remind others of their own personal worth. The volunteer turned friend grows in love, bearing all things, hoping against hope, enduring, forgiving, nurturing, and overflowing with patience and kindness. The serving becomes a way of life, not a Love Does kit or a food box dropped at a front door. The Giver becomes the focus over the gift. The servant is humble, learning to be hidden in Christ. The volunteer has learned this valuable asset of transparency, brokenness, and admittance that they too do not have it all together. When real shows up and equality and friendship, then serving becomes genuine. The volunteer isn’t playing the part of the Hero and the recipient is no longer defined as a mooch. Man oh man, then being a servant gets good.

Unfortunately, many volunteers abort servanthood before they have experienced it. We get angry that the family receiving a food box has a nice television or an expensive vehicle, never realizing that the television was leased and the vehicle was borrowed from a friend. We get disappointed because the family we want to pray for will not open up and share something to pray about, never considering that as strangers we were prying into the deepest hurts of a mama’s heart. We get lost trying to find the address and waste an hour trying to find a place that never existed, not realizing someone made a mistake writing it down or entering it into the database. Do not misunderstand, all of our volunteers are awesome and are serving Jesus when they give their time. But most of us start out thinking the ride would be just a little smoother, that everything on the instruction sheet would go as planned, that people would be waiting to pour out their hearts and welcome friendship. Many of us thought it would be easy.

Nothing about laying down our lives for another person is easy. Ask Tim Linderman. Love costs, but he will tell you it’s always worth it. He has served people on the streets, in shelters, in the projects, in dilapidated apartments, in a mess. He’s served with his friends, his cousin, his wife and his girls. He has delivered food in freezing temps, pouring rain, and when it’s super hot and he would rather be in the AC. He’s steady, consistent and committed.

Tim Linderman lives every day with major health issues, in constant pain and sometimes struggling to walk. He battles degenerative conditions, but many in our community have no idea. See, his circumstances do not determine who he is in Jesus. He knows hauling heavy boxes and walking up a bunch of steps to deliver them is not his best decision for what it will cost him. Often he has to take a recovery day after he does food delivery because of the toil it takes on him physically. Does that stop him? No. He loves God and loves people more than he loves his own body.

Don’t be thinking Tim is some “goody-two-shoes.” He’s not. He’s a human like the rest of us, a sinner saved by grace. All this good seeping out of him is Jesus, it is not Tim. That’s the truth of all of us, the good in us is Jesus, the junk is us. So as you read about Tim, or any of our Better Togethers, remember their positive attributes are the Jesus we see in them. As for the Jesus in Tim…

He’s a warrior, a fighter. He is living for this moment. He’s not chasing some American Dream. He is making the moments he has intentionally count. He spends his weeks homeschooling his daughters. He is teaching them to hide truth in their heart, along with a good measure of math, science and literature. He is coming to community events, not because he feels like it, but because he is living to the full this day. He is listening intently to his friends and making the best restaurant lemonade for all the kids. He is pushing through hard to enjoy the carefree moments of BBQ with his fellas or inhaling some helium and talking like Mickey Mouse with a bunch of community kids. He is fighting through pain to be fully present with the people he loves.

Many of those people are his food delivery families. Maybe they know what it costs him to show up every month, to sit and listen well, to haul their food box, but if they are not super observant, they probably don’t know. They probably haven’t noticed because they are so thankful for his love for them that they rest right there. Rest in his love, that just so happens to be Jesus’ love flowing right through that man. They give over some of their burdens because he carries them willingly. They tell him the success stories and show him the furniture that God provided. Never knowing that sometimes that furniture came from his own house. They ask about his family and thank him for loving them. If they only had a clue, but he doesn’t love them to have a clue about him. He wants them to have a clue about Jesus, about the One that holds him when he feels discouraged, the One that saved him from himself, and the One that gives him an abundant life.

Often we grumble in our serving. We want faster results. We want to have cool stories to tell. We want to see people meet Jesus and transform in front of our very eyes. Sometimes those miracles do happen and we see impossible things happen, but sometimes the miracle is the steady and we can’t measure the result.

Jesus is that steady for us, when we give no good thing, when we don’t let him change us, when we still want what we want. He stays steady and waits for our hard heads. Tim shows us that a lot of times people need the steady, the consistency, the love, to know that he is their friend this month just like last month. The miracle is sometimes our steadfast obedience to believe the impossible, that we are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see. As his daughters see him serve, we can be sure that the fruit of his love will be passed on to them and hopefully the generations after them. They know their dad loves them and many others.

Grace Klein Community is better for having Tim Linderman as a vital member of our community. Not only is he committed to food delivery, his family leads out as secret givers who care for many tangible needs in this community. He is open handed, maybe more open handed by the day. God’s work in Him is spreading to be God’s hands and feet, not only in Birmingham, but all around the world.