Why Do I Want to be a People Helper?

Despite all the obstacles, I finally managed to sign up for the ‘How to be a People Helper’ course in church. I had thought initially that the deadline was over and that I had missed the opportunity. Thank God I was able to register for it in the end, albeit a little last minute. Yuet Pei, Katherine and Agnes signed up for it too. I hope that they will be able to benefit from this course, just as I hope to be able to equip myself through this course.

Everyone who is a human being will need help sometime or another. So we are surrounded by people who need help. If we were that person, we would be hoping that someone we knew would be able to help us. How many times have people come to me with some issues and problems and have asked me for help? How many times have I been in a situation where someone is asking me for advice? How many times have I been troubled and concerned about the needs and burdens of others? So many times, yet how many times have I felt helpless and unsure of what I have to do to help them?

I am sure that merely attending this 12 weeks course will not be able to help me solve everyone’s problems. I am sure however, that through this course, I will be better equipped to help others whenever I am placed in such situations by God and if I am called to do so. Given the task that God has given me as an advisor, I believe that opportunities to help others will arrive sooner rather than later.

It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you – try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept God’s will yourself! ~ Thomas Merton, the New Seeds of Contemplation