Volunteering in Your Community

It is good. It is necessary for a healthy community. Someone needs to do it.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction… (James 1:27)

Some have volunteer opportunities everywhere they turn. Others have limited circles and no known connections. If you want to help others, how do you make it happen?

Know your calling. Why do you want to do anything? What, in a broad sense, are you called to do? Remind yourself of your motivation so that you can serve from the heart and not just off the checklist.

…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Know your availability. You can’t give what you don’t have. If you aren’t free 20 hours a week, don’t sign up to work 3 days a week at the neighborhood thrift store. Before you make any decisions about what you will do to offer a cup of cold water to anyone, know when and how much time you can offer.

Know your gifts. What are you good at? If you love nothing more than serving dinner to the entire block, a soup kitchen is probably a good fit. If you are an extrovert and communicate well, leverage those people skills on a one-to-one basis or as a group leader or teacher. If you prefer limited small talk and being outside, check into a list of houses needing yard work or repairs from a local church or agency. Habitat for Humanity is a lot of fun as a group project and serves great needs. I am by no stretch of the imagination a contractor, but I have enjoyed several years of builds with that program.

Know your possibilities. Start asking. Talk to friends. Let people know you are exploring options. Get ideas. Research local agencies. Call places and ask questions about need. Brainstorm. Pull together a list or pool of what might work. Now you have what you need to make a choice.

Enjoy! Put your heart into it and be blessed.

Consider: “Habits of Grace”

Habits of Grace by David Mathis is a book that deals with spiritual disciplines in a summary form. Here is a brief excerpt describing the author’s hope for the readers:

My hope in reshifting the focus from the spiritual disciplines to the means of grace — and then the various personal habits of grace that we develop in light of them — is to keep the gospel and the energy of God at the center… My prayer is that this approach will help to make the means of grace, and your own habits that develop around them, not just accessible and realistic but truly God’s means of your knowing and enjoying Jesus.

An excellent chapter on time management included this concept:

One way to make it practical is to schedule the time both for proactive good in the calling God has given us and reactive good that responds to the urgent needs of others.

The Epilogue alone — “Communing with Christ on a Crazy Day” — may be worth the price of the book for many of us!

 

 

These books are set here as possibilities for you to explore. Posts and links are not paid publicity.