I want to help people, But...

Helping people is the noblest of missions, but it is also the mission with the most casualty and injury of its workers. People are messy and unpredictable, but so worth the hassel, at least, God and Christ thinks so. Christ put His life on the Cross for people that were not the nicest, most well behaved and certainly were not appreciative of His sacrafice. But, what a difference that Love made!

I had a conversation with someone I was trying to recruit and this comment kept coming up. I want to help people, but....; and I hold the record for yeah, but statements. At least I did until a good friend stopped me in the middle of a statement and said, commit to something! YES or NO! no but's, no conditions, no explanation (this started a panic attack like you would not believe), but it was absolutely a pivotal point in changing poor decision making skills and controlling the fear.

Commitment is good. Determination is the glue that keeps things together in the storm, and Faith is what keeps you breathing.

Another, silly misconception is "Some people just do not want to be helped". This is a wrong and destructive way to think. People want help, People want God, sometimes they just can't see the way there, and they are afraid of taking things, or assistance because things are bad enough, what if this doesn't work? "I have to give up stuff to get something." "I know where I am at now I will just stay here and suffer instead of changing to an unknown situation and take a chance." They are saying to themselves.

People who are hurting, do not know what they want, they do not really care about the next five minutes or anything for that matter. They just want the pain to stop. All pain is not physical, but it can all cause the same reactions, poor judgement and bad choices, which leads to the bad behavior that is seen or experienced. But, like a small child having a temper tantrum, loosing our cool and abandoning them is not the way to help. The "Truth" is the best medicine, it goes down hard and leaves a sting and a bad taste for a while, but once it is digested, it makes everything better!

Behavior is like a volcano, what you see is the eruption, but the problems and thought processes that caused it have been working under the surface for awhile. Heat rises and rock flies. (modified slightly, but the main idea is borrowed heavily from a sunday school lesson, citation provided on request.)

This why the Combination of Mind, Body and Spirit is so important. It is the way God designed us, and is the main emphasis of the "whole person treatment" which is proving to be the most effect across the disciplines of medicine. Hence, our design for this group, it not only makes us a complete service resource but also allows members to contribute their strengths and develop those things that they are not as strong in, but what makes us different from other groups is our Inner strength, which comes from our Lord and Savior. "When we are weakest, He is strong" "Our strength comes from Him" that is why we can serve, even in difficult personal times, to difficult people, during crisis events. He is our Strength, we do it because He did it for us, and the ones we are serving are His too.

Think back to a time when you were not the most lovable, most cooperative, most godly behaving person (Be Honest, it has happened, you are human!). Did everyone bail on you? (If they did, sorry, but that does not mean they were working with God and acting appropriately.) We are called to a higher way of thinking, loving and doing, we are CHRISTians, our model is Christ, He never stopped teaching, loving, praying for His people. Even on the cross, bearing our sins, He prayed for us and interceded for us to the Father asking for him to forgive us. Can we bear alittle bad attitude, ungreatfulness, greed, anger? Can we take alittle mistreating, unfair accusations, and mistreatment for their souls sake. Are we willing to minister to their hearts, are we strong enough and determined to assist people back to their relationship with Christ?

When times get tough, troubles, illness, relationships crumble who do we drop first? Christ, who do we stop talking to? What is the first place we stay away from? In problem solving alot of times you reverse the order, trace your steps back to where things were wrong, and do the opposite. When things are tough, we need to talk to God more, Pray more, He needs to have our attention, our Hearts need to be opened, our Minds need to focus and we need to HEAR him so He can comfort us like no one else can. He can heal us like nothing else can. Faith in Him brings the results. Where their is no faith, there is fear, where the is fear, there is pain. To give them faith, show them Love.

We want to help people get the best answers, and the best assistance, we need to take the to Jesus, but that requires patience, love, longsuffering, and PRAYER, lots of heart felt, down on your knees, tear felt prayer for God to move in us, through us, around us, under us, and over us. Light us up like CHRISTmas lights!!! Christ is here, we just need to LIGHT the way so that others can see Him and recognize it is Him. They need it, but may not realize what they are looking at.

SHINE ON! Light the way, LOVE, ENCOURAGE, PRAY!!! Be willing to be used, (for His glory).
A life could be eternally impacted...by the actions you take and choices you make.