You Can't Wrap Service

On Wednesday evening, I talked with my Valiant Knights (11-year-old scouts) about service, encouraging them to do some special act of service for someone else this Christmastime. Christmas is a really good time to give service. Thoughtful service is an expression of love, and Christmas is all about giving each other gifts of love.

My trouble is that it doesn't make a very good gift. You can't wrap service. You can't write someone's name on it and stick it under a tree. Unless the service involves making something or fixing something, it's hard to make a gift out of it, because it's not a thing, it's an action, and Christmas presents are almost always things. Even if you used a thing (like a coupon) to represent future service, the gift would seem really cheap and lame.

Yet, service would sometimes make a better gift than an object. Service is usually more thoughtful than a physical gift, and unless the physical gift is homemade, service almost always involves a greater sacrifice of time and effort to obtain than a store-bought gift does. It's a more personal gift than anything you could just buy at a store. It's not even so much of a gift, really. It's a more direct expression of love.

Then again, there are good things to be said about physical gifts as well. Homemade gifts require greater sacrifices of time and effort than service does, and they're often incredibly personal and wonderful gifts. And since purchased gifts cost money and money takes time and work to obtain, store-bought gifts still represent a sacrifice in time and effort, and some of them are just do darn cool and/or useful that they bring a substantial amount of joy and happiness into the lives of the people who receive them. There are many kinds of gifts, and what would make a good gift mostly depends on who the recipient is.

I'm not good at giving good gifts. I don't have much talent at making things, and even now that I have a job and some money, I have no idea what to buy for others. Out of making things, buying things, and giving service, I'm best at giving service. It's just too bad that service isn't really something you can actually give.