The alarm caused by my two protective dogs reverberated in my ears as I walked into the house after a night at the shelter. I haven't spent too much time volunteering at the homeless shelter this season, but it was nice to spend an evening there again. I have gone through phases in my volunteering at this particular shelter: some years I have had a weekly pattern of volunteering and other years I have volunteered in spurts throughout the season. This particular season has been one of the latter.
As I was reflecting on my evening, sipping on my coffee, and reading a chapter from An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor I thought of this blog post. The chapter was on community. I immediately assumed that the chapter would discuss how church community is a great and needed element in our lives, but instead it focused on how we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. It discussed the practice of viewing people for their humanity even if you don't relate to them well. It talked about crossing barriers of the "Other" to truly get to know the strangers around us. BBT shares beautifully that, "“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Those most likely to befriend strangers, in other words, are those who have been strangers themselves. The best way to grow empathy for those who are lost is to know what it means to be lost yourself.”"
There was a lot of incredible wisdom spewed throughout the chapter, but what really stood out to me was the reminder of how community can be good for me. Community is good for you. It's not just about the other as if they were someone less than you. It is about knowing what it means to be in their shoes. It's about realizing that we are brothers and sisters. Our place in life does not make one of us better than the other. We are equal and we should treat those we volunteer with as such. We are called to love the other who we did not make up as if they were ourselves. It isn't just good for the person, but it's also good for us. This chapter fit perfectly with what I had been thinking about as I had returned to the shelter to volunteer this past evening. While trying to avoid the risk of sounding selfish I wanted to spend the rest of this post sharing 3 reasons why volunteering can be beneficial for you as a person and not just the group or place you are volunteering at.
Why volunteering can be good for you:
1. Volunteering can help you see the Other: When you volunteer you most likely are stepping outside of your comfort zone. You are most likely going to interact with individuals who are different than you. While it is important to realize that you are not better than the person you are working with, it is also important to truly see them as a person and get to know what they are like. Volunteering is a way to get to know the stranger.
2. Volunteering can humble you: When you aren't around people who are different than you it can be easy to get lost in thoughts about how great you think you are. Sometimes when we take time to volunteer and really look at the world around us we can see there is more to life than just you and your likes.
3. Volunteering allows you to use your passions outside of your job: Many millennials have grown up being told they can pursue their dreams and they should choose jobs based on their passions. While this is great advice, it has also led people to think that every single thing that they enjoy doing they should be paid for. This is simply not true though. Volunteering can connect your passions to helping others without getting paid. Yes, volunteering does take time and time is money, but there is a freedom in knowing you can help others and not get paid for it. There's more to life than gaining more money.
These are just some of my thoughts. I would love to hear more ways that volunteering in your community can be beneficial for you as a person--without dehumanizing those you are working with.
Grace & Peace.
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