Rolling Up Our Sleeves for Service
I love Rachel Naomi Remen's definition of service. She says it is different from helping (someone weaker) or fixing (someone broken). Service takes place between equals. And there were plenty of examples of this in the New Morning episode on
Roll Up Your Sleeves that have inspired me as I go forth into my day.
Michael Ennes is the very talented gourmet chef at the "4 Star Soup Kitchen" in New York. He calls the homeless people who come there for their meals the "Soup Kitchen Guests." Not clients, not "the homeless," but his guests. He talks about building up his guests with good nutrition and the attention of a caring and listening staff.
When a
suburban Presbyterian church decided to celebrate its anniversary by taking their ministry of service to an inner city neighborhood, they didn't assume they knew what needed "fixing." They asked the residents what they needed, and then they set out to work with them to accomplish it. How did they gain the trust of the neighborhood? One resident explains, "They did the one small thing they said they would do" and then they did another small thing they said they would do.
Sona Mehring of CaringBridge.org started with a small thing—the idea that people facing a health crisis needed an easy way to connect with their family and friends—and so she created a Web site with user-friendly technology to do just that.
Teresa Beemer at the Ewe Bet Ranch had a similar small idea—that young people would enjoy creating something simple for someone in need, such as a knitted hat for a cancer patient. And
Val Price—on his morning run, he stops and picks up litter; he's hoping to make his community the cleanest in America. Simple, daily acts of service.
I was especially impressed with
Dr. Naif al-Mutawa's Islamic comic books, "The 99." I need to get some of those! The 99 different characters each represent one of the 99 attributes of God, but because the 99 attributes recognized in Islam have a "yin-yang" quality to them—some attributes seem to be the opposite of others—no one attribute is enough by itself. In his comic books, the characters have to collaborate. Nothing can be solved without the involvement of at least three characters.
What a marvelous way of illustrating the concept of service! No one can do it alone, not even God! We need each other.