Serve

Today I met a man at work who has a radical approach to his life. In a few months he intends to quit his job, travel across the country, and learn various skills. These skills include a workshop and further education on how to build homes from the earth, like the adobe buildings of years past, and sustainable gardening that can be done in almost any circumstance. His goal?

To help others create better lives for themselves.
To learn these trades and teach them to others.
To use nature's resources and man's ingenuity to go around the world and help with disaster relief.

This jolted my senses, reminding me that the reason I chose engineering as a career was to help others in whatever way I could. Recently I'd been remembering how we are called to be servants, as Christ came to serve and give. I got some of his story as I talked to him and we put a conveyor section together. I asked him what made him decide to pursue this path of helping others with disaster relief. He told me that he had been getting to a place where his life was miserable, and all he was doing was making others' lives miserable. What turned him around? "Honest friends who told me what they were seeing in my life. Sometimes you become so focused on your own world that you forget about the real world out there."

Intrigued by his story and life plan, I started thinking of what my own life will look like. We share a common concern for the rampant poverty and destruction seen across this world. I told him about what Nuru has been doing to end extreme poverty. ( www.nuruinternational.org ) I began to wonder what lay in store for me here in Lynchburg, and how I could shape the people around me.

I don't think I'll be travelling across the country or the world to help the cause of social justice, at least not in the near future, but there's a city of people here in need of love and support. So I'll be pondering how I can be of service. Maybe volunteer at a food kitchen or homeless shelter. Donate my time, my money, my talents to causes like Nuru and others. I don't know where this may lead or in what form it may take, but I feel the passion inside that this world is broken, and it shouldn't be this way. God has given me the tools and the power to change this world for the good.

“Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.” 

– Isaiah 58:6-7 NLT

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” 

– Matthew 25:35-36 NLT