What is Selfless Service?

We often hear appeals to selfless service. But what is selfless service? Five reference points offer standards against which we might measure our leaders.

The first must be the immortal words of Jesus Christ, spoken and recorded in John 15. For purposes of brevity, the words that stick with me, especially reflecting on the tragic loss of two selfless firefighters in a terrible fire in rural Maine, are these:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

That is what Maine firefighters Andrew Cross (27) and Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Woodbury (76) did fighting a blaze and explosion at Robbin’s Lumberyard in Searsmont, Maine, in May of this year.

Second, might be the sacrifices of those Americans who have served and died in the service of our nation – and our freedom-preserving, world-changing ideals, brought home to us in our nation’s flag.

In total, 1.2 million Americans have died in our many wars for liberty, preserving for the future of this nation – and the world – the ideals set to paper for the first time succinctly in our “Declaration of Independence” on July 4, 1776.

Across US history, 41 million Americans have served in America’s uniform or been veterans. Today, while only one percent serve on active duty, America has more than 15 million living veterans, roughly six percent of our adult population.

Third, our public safety officers, police and firefighters, EMS personnel, and first responders represent selfless service, assuming high risk voluntarily to save and protect the lives of their neighbors, fellow Americans.

Today, America has more than 750,000 full-time law enforcement officers serving in 18,000 separate agencies to selflessly assure our public safety. They put on a vest, badge, and gun every day to face danger. The word selfless personifies their service.

Similarly, the nation has more than one million 18,000 firefighters, who each train, commit to save lives, regularly risk, and too often lose their lives responding to the peril of fellow Americans.

One million and 52,000 Emergency medical services personnel are qualified and rise daily to serve our nation, again ready to our life, limb, family, and future at risk for others.

Fourth, the example of selflessness is modeled by the medical profession. During COVID, but across the nation in all times, from emergency room personnel to hospice care, doctors, nurses, and trained caregivers – and often loving partners – offer all they have to bring comfort care, expertise, and relief to us when accidents, tragedy, disease, and frailty challenge the nation.

Those numbers are likewise staggering. We have roughly 1.1 million doctors, 5 million registered nurses, 1 million practical and vocational nurses, and another half million nurse practitioners. These selfless souls manage not just medications and disease exposure, but unavoidable disorientation, grief, loss, fear, and the many cascading effects of pain, discomfort, and mortality.

To these groups let us add a last – the loving neighbor, parent, grandparent, sibling, child, and friend in need. We Americans are largely Christian, as well as Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and a dozen other recognized religions, the majority of which seek to define, cultivate, and remind us to be active in selflessness.

The Golden Rule, after all, is an appeal to what Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan called “the better angels of our nature,” the ability to put ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes, walk a mile in them, appreciate their perspective, go light on judging their human failures, and render service when needed.

Wrote Matthew, at 7:12: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you”

So, as we sweep into a hot summer, moving from our nation’s 250th birthday to celebrating each new day, remember one attribute for which we Americans are famous – selfless service. May we honor, hope, and revel in it, a big part of what got us to 250!

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!