Go and Do Likewise
Complicated Feelings
This isn’t something I’d planned to share. In fact, when I made the decision to volunteer, I was extremely conflicted and determined that I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it. I was, and if I’m honest, I still am, afraid that telling people about it would mean I was doing it for the wrong reasons.
OK, it’s probably time to say what “it” was.
Three weeks ago, now, I was sitting on my couch watching the news roll in about the impacts of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. As I was scrolling, I kept seeing a familiar name come up over and over again: Samaritan’s Purse.
Almost without thinking I decided I needed to volunteer to go help. And then almost as quickly I started to question myself.
Did they really need yet another person driving in from out of state without any real skill? Wasn’t I just doing this to feel good about myself and hear people tell me how nice it was for me to go?
After several hours of feeling compelled to go but conflicted, I awkwardly mentioned the idea to my husband with a “yeah, but I probably won’t actually.”
Until the next day as I was sitting in church and somehow over and over – in prayers, in songs, in the sermon – the idea of being the hands and feet of Jesus, of serving, kept coming up. It very well could have just been me wanting to go and looking for permission, but I don’t think it was.
So, the next day I worked out arrangements to take the following week off work, found an open slot to volunteer and camp at the church in Boone, NC, and signed up.
Serve Where There is Need
Leading into the trip I was still feeling weird and conflicted about it. I wanted to help and didn’t want to go. But go I did, and I thank God that I did.
Throughout my very short 3 days in Watauga County, NC, clearing downed trees from yards, I learned a lot. Maybe the biggest of which was: you can be both replaceable and called.
This hit home for my on my first morning.
In case you don’t know (I didn’t), Samaritan’s Purse has a team of chaplains that go out with the work teams. They’re there to both support the volunteers and provide ministry to the home owners at each work site. As a result, many people come to know Jesus through Samaritan’s Purse’s disaster relief work. Another job of the chaplains is to lead morning devotions after breakfast.
Kathy was a chaplain camping out in the same Sunday school classroom as me and she led morning devotions that morning. She talked about going through the same kind of conflicted, questioning thoughts that I had, and she quoted Esther:
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
-Esther 4:14
And while it is definitely a bit of a stretch, hermeneutically, it still struck me.
Yes, there were plenty of people volunteering; Samaritan’s Purse would have accomplished the work with or without me – someone would have arisen from another place – but there was a need and God placed me here, with the availability and the desire to help. In such a time as this, maybe.
Do What is Helpful
Those 3 days of work were a continuous lesson in adjusting expectations, being flexible, and keeping a heart of a servant as the goal.
I expected to be shoveling mud, tarping roofs, and tearing down drywall. Instead I was clearing fallen limbs on a chainsaw team. It’s still funny to me how much of a mental shift I had to make for that. It only took a single look at the yard of the first house to understand the need, though.
And it’s amazing how much joy there is in work done with new friends in order to serve others and show the love of Jesus.
My last day was the biggest adjustment. One of the best things about SP is they acknowledge that the work isn’t the point, serving and loving the home owners is the point. But that didn’t prepare me for my last work site where I was asked if I could sit with the home owner.
For someone who had a preconceived idea of what it would look like to help, sitting on a sofa chatting with an older woman while my team cleared her yard… well, it wasn’t what I pictured as helping. I’ve always been a bit more of a Martha than a Mary; I’m still learning.
Yet, being there as a listening ear was what was most needed in that moment, and I’m grateful both for the lesson and for the joy of sitting with Miss Peggy and hearing about her life, her losses, her blessings, and her hope.
What Changed My Mind
So, back to the beginning. Why did I change my mind about keeping this all to myself?
Admittedly, as I type this, I still have reservations. In Matthew 6, Jesus tell the crowd “3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
I don’t want to be doing this to be praised by others, and in a world where I’ve never been an adult without social media sometimes it’s hard to discern one’s own motivations.
But, I’ve hardly stopped thinking about this experience since I got home. It’s left me inspired and motivated to find more ways to help where I am. And I was inspired to do this by seeing other’s helping.
So I hope that my sharing this will help you feel emboldened to take the leap on however you may be considering serving others. It can be intimidating sometimes. You can second guess yourself into inaction.
Let my little experience be your catalyst to jump in and serve. If I can do it, anyone can.
But more than looking to me, I hope that I can point you to what Jesus commanded. Follow the example of the good Samaritan; go and do likewise, for His glory.