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| Volunteer courtesy photobucket.com |
After a nice rain one night,
Kelly mentioned to me, that her roof was leaking.
With out thinking I said, “Oh
I will tell me husband to come over and look at your roof and perhaps he can
fix it for you.”
She gave me her address
and directions how to get there and was happy for my offer.
That evening I mentioned this
to Robert and showed him her address and directions. He was not interested in the least, and I was
met by silence.
I begged, “Will you please
come and take a look at her roof and see if you can help her?”
I continued to receive only
stares, but finally he spoke.
“I will
come this time, but please in the future never volunteer me to do
anything.”
He stated that he wasn’t
against volunteer work, but he wanted to be the one to make that choice.
Robert put our ladder on his
truck, and we both went to visit my friend Kelly. Robert found that her gutters were full of
leaves and were stopped up.
This was
causing water to back up and was the reason for her leak. All it took was to rake out the leaves from
the roof gutters, and run a hose down her drain pipe, and all was well.
Kelly was appreciative and
wanted to pay Robert, but he refused and said, “This was done as a favor so no
payment is necessary.”
That was a lesson I quickly
learned: To not volunteer Robert or anyone else to do a job.
In life, there are times when
leaves and dirt collect in our spiritual gutters and they need to be cleaned
out. Not necessarily sins, but often it
is leaves of busyness, we are just too busy and perhaps over committed.
Too much on our plate can clog the drains
Then there is volunteer work. Some projects are good in themselves - - even
good works, but we must take care that they are truly something that God has
given us to do.
God may ask you to
volunteer, but he will not place a burden on you that is too heavy to bear.
6 comments:
This certainly hits home Hazel; I have finally learned not to volunteer my husband before asking too! We all tend to want to help everyone we come in contact with, which can certainly over burden us. Yes; if we go to our Father first, He will prompt us on the best way to help and "volunteer" our gifts and services. :)
Blessings and hugs!
Denise
Wow. That's a great analogy, Hazel. I've been volunteered for jobs more often than I can recall! I'm gathering a couple lessons here today! Thanks, Hazel.
Wow. Great analogy, Hazel. We get busy, sometimes from being volunteered by others. I've a hunch that Robert would have gone anyway, but your respect following went a long way. Taking notes, here! Thanks, Hazel.
"In life, there are times when leaves and dirt collect in our spiritual gutters and they need to be cleaned out. Not necessarily sins, but often it is leaves of busyness, we are just too busy and perhaps over committed." This is a powerful statement. I think people feel trapped in busyness and being over-committed. But there is a way out, and it takes deliberate small steps. I was forced to confront these things in my life, and a goal of mine is to help people find simplicity and margin without having to crash & burn like I did. Why do we need to hit bottom first? I believe it doesn't always have to happen. I really like this analogy, and it's likely I'll be using again.
True Hazel. Me too sometimes wanted someone to do a helping hand, but this person have to decide for himself. Anyway, you did your best and your friend got the help she needed:) Robert is very kind.
Thanks for the message from God's words too:)
This post has such wisdom, Hazel, about volunteering others and about the stuff that clogs our spiritual gutters, and jumping too fast to volunteer, without first taking time to consult God---well, that can make a huge part of the debris, can't it?
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