A Note about Helping Others

We all have one.  The person that only calls when they need something.  The one that, when you see his name pop up in your caller ID,  you think “Clear the calendar, there goes my day.”   They always need help.  And not just the short lived, 5 minute, kind.  The kind of help that lasts for-ever. One of my friends continually needs a baby sitter.  Or they cant figure out how to fix their car.  Or they need a ride to work.  Or they need another 5 bucks to get through the week …. the list goes on and on. The world will never be short of people that need our help.  And most of the time I have no problem with lending a hand.  In fact, it is a part of my life that I enjoy. I really do love the feeling of giving back to someone that is in need.    My husband is mostly annoyed, not so much with the giving back part but he gets frustrated that I “don’t  know how to say no”.  It’s true, I am a soft target for anyone in need.  But sometimes, on occasion, just once in a while, it. gets. old. As I sat in church Sunday morning, I looked up at the screen, and this verse was randomly posted.

For I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a SLAVE TO ALL, that I might win more of them.  

What does that mean?  A “slave to all”?  That is a pretty tall order. I mean, I like to give back, and I don’t mind helping out a friend, but me?  a slave? Whoa, I’m no slave.  But Paul was.

I think, “I don’t want to loan you my car again, last time you used all the gas and never said thanks!”  But Paul said “all things to all people”

I say “I don’t have time to watch your kids again, you tell me 2 hours but it’s really 6 before you come back for them!”  But Paul says “a slave to all”

I grumble “I don’t’ want to give up another Saturday to work at the Food and Clothing Bank, I have my own work to do!”  Again “all things to all people”

Sometimes I don’t like Paul… Here’s the crux of the matter:  Paul was striving to be “all things to all people” so that (and here is the important part) HE MIGHT SAVE SOME!  You see, Paul had it right!  If you interact with these people who don’t have Christ, but need you, they will see Christ through you. So maybe that is why God puts us in contact with all these needy people.  

Next time my phone rings, and the “needy gal from across town” is calling.  I am going to try to smile more, and joyfully accept her plea for help.  God put her in my life for a reason, maybe I am the only Jesus that she will ever see.  I want to be a slave FOR JESUS.  I want to  be his hands, I want to be his feet.  When people look for help and ask me for it, I want them to look straight into the face of Jesus, when I smile and say “of course”.

Again.