The Power of Helping versus being Helped

I have a new friend / client who has a neat story about how he came to be a Christian.  He was an atheist for 38 years, and quite content.  However, one day his neighbor's five year old child was diagnosed with Leukemia.  My friend began volunteering to raise funds for the child's treatment.  As he became more involved, he says he took his eyes off himself for a moment, and was able to see the hope all around him.  As a result of his efforts, and the relationships this developed, he became a Christian.  Where he lives, he could have gone his whole life without hearing a strong evangelistic message, yet he was able to see through service the reality of God.  How cool is that.

This story came back to me as I was teaching a lesson the other day about the four friends who had a crippled friend they wanted to get in front of Jesus.  They brought him to a house on a blanket with the expectation that they would get him in front of Jesus who was reported to be able to heal.  Unfortunately, the crowd was made up of people who were looking to critique Jesus rather than support him, so they had no desire to let the men through.  Instead of giving up, they climbed up on the roof, busted a hole in it and lowered their friend down on the blanket where Jesus was able to forgive and heal.

Often times, when we think about those of our friends in need, whether physical or spiritual, we put them in the blanket, and try to get them in front of Jesus somehow.  We see our role to bring this "crippled" person forward with the idea that he can be healed if we do so.  Many times this does take place, when we see the obvious "injury" and see the need to help this person overcome it.

Where we miss out, though, is when we see a person who doesn't look or sound crippled yet we know they do not experience the joy of a relationship with Jesus.  We cannot picture them in a blanket being lowered in front of Jesus, nor can we actually figuratively picture them in a blanket at all.

Consider another possibility.  What if the four friends that carried the injured man were not all believers.  What if only two or three were, but asked the non-believers to help, and they saw the importance of helping enough to agree to carry the blanket.  Think of the impact on them from the experience of Jesus' healing of the paralytic on the blanket.  Maybe you need to approach your friends differently. Get them to help you help someone else.  Create a project to feed the homeless and take your friend with you.  Help out a widow or orphan in your community and ask for help to do so.  Perhaps by their joining you in caring for someone else, the same change will take place that affected my friend.

Hey, you have nothing to lose, and someone will gain, regardless of the impact on your own friend.  Whoever is getting served will benefit. 

Try it and tell me how it goes.