I have to admit--I've been struggling with this Be God's Helper challenge. I don't feel like I do that much. I have a job I like but it's not saving the world. I volunteer one hour a week. The rest of my time is spent grocery shopping, exercising, doing the laundry and paying bills (all unimaginative neccesities). Is smiling at the frenzied mother in the grocery store line really worth mentioning? Looking at this week's readings, I don't know where to find the time to encourage the faint hearted and help the weak, let alone be a voice in the wilderness. I feel like the most I have time for is not to repay evil for evil. How does one really be God's helper in our hectic western lifestyle? Any suggestions? Am I just making excuses?
Debra, I think you are doing just fine! If this site and its call to be helpful all the time is going to have the end result of making us all feel guilty and inadequate, well I think that then it has done a Heraclitan flip-over ito its opposite, as Jung would say. Also echoed in La Rochefoucauld's maxim that the extreme of any virtue is vice. If we were all literally to follow the imperative of Jesus to give up all of our worldly goods to the poor, we would become wards of the state! Is that a good idea? Let's hold on to a measure of moderation in all this and to a reasonable regard for our own needs.
Look at the increasing opposition to the war. Three years ago, when many of us protested and spoke our conscience, we thought we were ignored, but not so. I think we planted within many people seeds of doubt and the possibility of a third way. My point being, that even though we may be overwhelmed at the compelling need for helpers -- conducting our lives in a way that acknowledges our privileged status by trying to encourage the faint hearted and weak is what's important. You smiled at me and brought me a casserole when I was going through unspeakable grief and despair! Many gay people are shunned and ignored when they loose a partner. Your helping actions made me feel like I'm not a freak, I'm a worthy child of God being accepted and embraced by God's helpers. Sadly, many glbt's still feel like freaks, never underestimate the power of a smile and a casserole!
Thanks Eugene, for your kind words. I think what I'm struggling with is Mennonite church identity. We have clung to our history as a persecuted church quite tightly. We have closely associated discipleship with hardship and mistreatment. Are we still God’s helper when it doesn’t hurt?
Debra, there is a paradox here. At the core of being helpful and selfless is an element of self-indulgence and selfishness. Being nice feels nice, doesn't it? Being nice makes us happy and provides us good feelings of self-worth, doesn't it? Must we "give till it hurts"? Without pain, is ther no gain? I think pain, whether physical at the gym when exercising, or in one'e giving and helpng, may well be a sign that we are doing something seriously wrong. Pain is nature's way of saying, hey wait a minute. Do you really want to go around feeling psychic pain all the time as proof that you are being "helpful"?
