Dementia: A Lesson on Serving (By Kristyn Jameson)

Last time I visited my grandma she told me, “The question is, ‘How can God give people dementia?’ It’s just so yuck. I think I can use it and God can use it… And that’s what I want to get through to people- that God uses those kinds of things.” That’s her ultimate desire- for God to use her, dementia and all.

One of the many ways she is being used by God in her church is by greeting. She wants to make everyone feel welcome, especially the other women in the church. She told me, “I’m real with women in the church and I get out there and I go, and if I make a fool of myself that’s just fine.”

It reminds me of 1 Peter 3:10-11, which says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Thinking of my grandma really makes me question my excuses for not serving. I mean, my grandma is a greeter at her church and she has dementia. Can you imagine that? A greeter with dementia?

“Hi! I’m Kristyn. Are you new here?”
“Hey, Kristyn. No, I’m not new here. I’m Pastor Paul.”

It seems funny to me, but that’s what she has been called to do so she’s doing it! She might forget the same person week after week but that’s okay because she is doing what the Lord has asked her to do. She can be a greeter even if remembering people is a weakness of hers because she serves with the strength that God supplies.

The apostle Paul also had a weakness, and he asked the Lord to remove it from him. He writes, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).”

My grandma has a weakness, and she’s still serving. It’s so clear she’s not serving out of her own strength but the Lord’s. When we rely on his strength and not our own, it brings Him so much glory and it is such a beautiful thing. Our complete dependence on the work and strength of Jesus Christ doesn’t end with our salvation, it continues in every area of our lives and therefore, should be the only source of our strength as we serve the body of Christ.

Whatever our excuse is not to serve, we need to ask ourselves, “Is this what the Lord is calling me to do?” and if the answer is “Yes,” then we need to do it, trusting that he will supply the strength. Then we can rejoice in knowing that the Lord is working through our weakness and that he will be glorified.

​My grandma has a weakness, and she is serving the Lord anyway. As my grandma relies on Him, she is not weak. She is strong in Christ.