Helping...

I think many people choose their career with the same thought in mind: I want to help people. But because we all have different gifts and interests, we see many different ways to help people. Think about it. Almost any career or job can be someone's way of helping people. Teaching, preaching, and any of the health care positions (from doctor to technician to in-home health care) are some of the more obvious careers in which we are helping people. But think about a person in customer service or retail, a musician, designer, or even a dog groomer. Those are all jobs that help people too, if in a less obvious way.

We would have a lop-sided world if we all wanted to help people in the same way.

I started thinking about this tonight because I was working at BSU, helping to guide about 30 adult students through the process to begin or continue their education in English. I was thinking what a wonderful opportunity this is for them and how honored I feel to be able to be a part of it. They are all just so eager to learn. One of the questions we ask as we are assigning them to a class is if they want to come on Monday and Wednesday or on Tuesday and Thursday. The majority of them will have such a long pause after that question that we will fill in the silence with the third option: or all four nights? And so many of them choose that, it really surprises me. I think it's because the bulk of my teaching experience has been with students who are in class more out of obligation than out of a real desire to learn.

In Spanish there is a phrase tener ganas, which means something like to have a desire to do something. I haven't been able to find any phrase in English that conveys it quite as well. I use that phrase quite often as I am registering students for these adult English classes. I say, "or you could come all four nights if you really have the ganas to learn it." It conveys a deeper feeling in one's being than simply "desire."

I really just wanted to talk about how we each help people through our work. On the one hand, it makes us feel like we are really accomplishing something in our day to day activities at work. On the other hand, I believe this is how God uses us. So many people think that serving God can only be done in a church building or by preaching or teaching Sunday School or going on mission trips.
Not so, my friends.
Serving God is done by letting Him use us every day in our normal activities, whether they be at work or at home or out in the community. The way I talk to people I work with speaks volumes for who I am and Who I answer to. The same goes for people I only have breif encounters with, such as waiters and waitresses, bank tellers, cashiers, gas station attendants, even tele-marketers. I pray that after an exchange with me, those people have a good feeling - something that makes them want all of their encounters that day to go as well. That doesn't mean that I always have to be super-smiley or that I can never complain about getting the wrong order. It means that I allow the gentleness, the self-control, and the grace of God to shine through me and to speak through me as I go throughout my day.

Just some thoughts...