According to this article if you’re feeling lonely and need to prop up your dating chances then volunteering is the answer! Volunteering allows you to meet new people and then when you’re out on the town nothing is more attractive than telling your desired boyfriend/girlfriend all about about your volunteering and impressing them with your ‘goodness’.

Hmmm…I can see the logic behind all this and I’d recommend volunteering or serving as a brilliant way to strengthen your relationships with others. But whatever happened to simply volunteering because you wanted to add value to others? What happened to volunteering and serving in silence or secretly.

Just this weekend gone by I took part in The Salvation Army’s annual fundraiser, the Red Shield Appeal. It involves door knocking hundreds of thousands of homes all across the Australia with the aim of raising funds to help The Salvation Army continue to deliver frontline social and community services all across this nation. I love the Red Shield Appeal and have been knocking on people’s doors with a big smile on my face ever since I could walk! But I’ve been reading lately from the Gospels and I’ve been challenged.

Jesus said, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues (temples) and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.                         - Matthew 6:1 (NIV)

Whoa….now I don’t know about you but I read that and I get smashed! It brings a lot of challenging thoughts to mind.  It begs the question, is Jesus saying that we shouldn’t do the Red Shield Appeal? It messes around with you if really decide to take it seriously, well most of what Jesus had to say does that!

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Red Shield Appeal is OK, as long as it continues to be about engaging the community in a positive way and constantly pointing to Jesus in all that it does. The risk is when our acts of service and our volunteering become more about us and our success and reputation, rather than giving the due glory to Jesus Christ alone.

A question that someone posed to me a few years ago, and which has continued to haunt me (in a really good way!) and effect every single area of my life is the following:

How does Jesus become the hero in everything that I do?

I hope this question is a helpful one for you as well, as we each continue to wrestle with what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus in an age of self obsession.

nm