Before I begin today’s snippet I want to give a shameless plug about the re-release of EXPOSED: Inexcusable Me…Irreplaceable Him. It is AVAILABLE!! 🙂 I know many of you already have the 1st Edition and I don’t expect you to go out and buy another copy but I will ask that you forward the information along to your friends and family that might benefit from reading it. The price has gone down as well! It is now only $14.99! CLICK HERE TO BUY!
Yesterday after the kids awards ceremony after Mass we stopped in to check on the young adults that were putting together the garage sale for the weekend. I had put on at least 7 of these garage sales in the past 9 years and I was doing my best to stay clear of it if I could. I knew the work it entailed and to be brutally honest…a Saturday morning with nothing to do seemed like such a treasure to me. However, when I entered the youth office the new young adult minister looked at me, her eyes big but droopy, her face flushed, back hunched and there were lines on her face that no 27 year old should have. My heart sank. I sat down in the chair across from her and said, “You are overwhelmed, aren’t you?”
All she could do was nod.
In my head I kept thinking “No! No! Don’t do it! You have a FREE Saturday morning!” and then there was the conflicting “You have a FREE Saturday morning, you KNOW what you should do.” Before I could allow my mind to carry on I said, “I will be here at 6am tomorrow to help. Whatever you need I’ll help you.”
Much to my surprise my youngest, Seth, volunteered to join me. So at 5:30am this morning we woke up and worked the garage sale till about 1pm today. When I got there and saw there were only about 10 of us working the sale my heart went out to the young adult minister even more. It normally takes at least 15-25 to run the garage sales we have been putting on over the years. And then I looked around at who was there…there were the few young adults but there were many older women too. Come to find out these women have been helping all week long just because they wanted to chip in and DO SOMETHING for the church.
Somehow we pulled it off. The Family Life Center was piled high with what appeared to be JUNK but by 11am this morning it was slim pickings. Goes to show that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure! The treasure I found today was in witnessing our community come together and take a simple Saturday morning to help our young adult program raise money for a budget. When I got home I couldn’t help but think about some of the older women I met today. They had no ties to the young adults but they took on that garage sale as if it were their project. I thought about their lives, what made them get up and go to make that effort to walk into the youth center and say “I’ll help.” even though they didn’t know a soul in the program. How cathartic it must be for them to serve as well and how healing it must be if, perhaps, they are widowed and just need company or coming out of their own suffering and just need to feel wanted and helpful.
People need something to do. People want to serve. People want to help. Honestly I do believe to serve others is to heal your soul.
Makes sense as it says in the Bible:
Acts 20:35: “In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Blessings
Shannon