It was almost eerie. It’s attributable to none other than the Holy Spirit, but it was uncanny the way every experience I’d ever had and every person I’d ever met prepared me to a T for the career missionary role I was interviewing for in early 2017.
The Bigger the Better?
Case in point: I’m looking at six trips to Belize this year, largely in support of short-term volunteer teams. Where did I serendipitously find myself serving in March 2016 after another mission trip fell through at last minute? Belize. Driving through our target community, our local guru told a striking story. She explained that some well-meaning soul had noted the omnipresent garbage poking through the sandy ground cover and generously decided to do something about it—a BIG something: purchase a garbage truck! It was the gift that kept on giving; the same benefactor also outfitted each family with an industrial-size trash receptacle. Problem solved!
Or was it? Who would drive the garbage truck? Moreover, who would pay the driver? Cover the cost of gas? Where would the trash be disposed of? Did people even care? Years later, it’s obvious the answer was no, the problem wasn't solved. Families had higher priorities than neighborhood clean-up and used the provided bins for dry goods storage. And the truck? It’s in the side yard of the community center blanketed in weeds.
Help Is Not Always Helpful
Despite the best of intentions, well-meaning aid can cause deep rifts and have irreparable consequences. I interface largely with US individuals, congregations, and organizations that want to help. But the lesson of the trash truck sticks with me and has been supplemented since my arrival here in 2018 by formal and informal opportunities to learn more about biblical, properly done, short-term service: study, reading, and conversation with seasoned colleagues. Five ways NOT to turn your proverbial trash truck into a lawn ornament:
- Pray. Before you set out to serve others, lay yourself, your fellow servants, and the intended recipients before God’s throne of grace. All things are sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer (see, for example, 1 Timothy 4:4–5). Jesus’ ministry was marked by intercession, and it is His example we strive to follow. Author Martha Van Buskirk writes this in Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Grace: “Jesus provides heavenly inspiration for us to look around with new eyes, ready to follow His lead and serve His purposes” (p. 71).
- Value relationships over “finishing” a job. There’s always more to do. Set down your hammer, your stethoscope, your whiteboard marker. It’s counterintuitive to our North American worker bee mindsets, but being present with people trumps meeting an arbitrary goal. Van Buskirk astutely asserts, “Help often doesn’t involve money or resources. For instance, listening is a wonderful way to serve” (p. 76).
- Acknowledge your role as learner. Your view of anyone’s story or circumstances—and how to “fix” them—is only the tip of the iceberg that’s above water. This is especially true as a guest in another culture, even one that doesn’t require a passport. To lean on the resources and expertise someone brings to the table is to uphold his or her dignity as a fellow redeemed child of God.
- Think long range. Sustainable service is, by definition, part of something bigger than your involvement in it. The LCMS, for example, is committed to Spread the Gospel, Plant Lutheran Churches, and Show Mercy in a given field, recognizing the generational nature of said commitment. There is a time and a place for emergency relief that provides instant gratification to both the helper and the helped, but there are more times and more places for taking baby steps that may not bear immediate fruit.
- Help others see their Savior. The most helpful gift you can give anyone is Christ, or rather, the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to call them to Christ. His was the most ordinary of ordinary lives, but His grace was extraordinary beyond belief. Van Buskirk again writes, “In a divine way, the Holy Spirit provides opportunities for us to serve His purposes in the places we live, work, volunteer, worship, and travel every day” (p. 70). His purposes. We are merely Christ’s chosen instruments (see Acts 9:15); soli Deo gloria.
For every metaphorical trash truck collecting everything other than trash as a result of detrimental “help,” there might be a pristine neighborhood resulting from a hearty dose of appropriate assistance. Done well, help is … helpful. We, as believers, would know! We’ve been helped to the utmost: “Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield” (Psalm 33:20, emphasis added).
Scripture: ESV®.
You can make a difference in your very own family, neighborhood, and community through Spirit-led acts of any magnitude. Read more in Martha Van Buskirk’s book.