I just finished reading a book called "Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life" by Nouwen, McNeill, and Morrision.
Here is a quote that resonated with me long after I was done reading.
"As long as the help we offer to others is motivated primarily by the changes we may accomplish, our service cannot last long. When results do not appear, when success is absent, when we are no longer liked or praised for what we do, we lose strength and motivation to continue."
Oh Lord how I want a pure heart that is motivated solely by the desire to find comfort, joy, and peace in you. Forgive me that I fall short.
More of you... less of me.
4 comments:
I am not sure I entirely agree....but maybe it is a matter of semantics (or needing to read the larger context). I would think that even Jesus would not have set out to heal (or help) someone if healing/helping were not the goal. But, the point is that the healing would clearly be God's goal.
I'd say that when the help we offer is not primarily in response to God's prompting, we'll be easily discouraged and lose motivaton. When we ARE responding to what God is asking of us, we may get discouraged, but we we'll always have a source of strength to fight the discouragement and a source of motivation to keep up the effort. God's effort, but He has no hands on earth but ours, as it has been said. Still, the goal remains the same....to heal, to help, to cause change.
It also epplies to service to evangelize. So many people stop service when they don't see conversions.
Hi! When people do service projects the projects should be done for the glory of God not the glory of the person doing the service project.Pat
Timely. So timely. Thanks, Christine!
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