The Business of Helping Others

In the spirit of vamping up my office and the adjoining computer lab, my manager approved the purchase of some motivational posters – of course I kept the best one for my own office. It is a picture of two hands cupping the planet Earth with the following words below it:

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can”

- John Wesley

Every morning when I step into my office at 7:00, and every time I swivel my chair, I see this phrase. It’s like a foghorn to start my day.

For those of you who don’t know, I work for the state of Tennessee as an employment counselor. In lay speak that means that I help people with disabilities find and keep employment. I work with people from all different backgrounds, with all kinds of disabilities, with all kinds of real-world problems. Of course finding work for each of them doesn’t exist in a vacuum but instead lies in knowing them very well – understanding their home life, their relationships, their support network – or lack thereof. On occasion, I am the first person my clients have ever told about sexual or physical abuse as a child, suicide attempts, or other countless pains they have endured or are currently enduring. I am glad that they tell me these things – it’s usually these pains that impact them the most on their quest to achieve their goals.

A few years into working in human services, I came to the point where I acknowledged that I needed to “shut off” work when I left the building – no work email, no work calls and no thinking about work. Essentially, from 7:00 until 3:30 I am “counselor” Burke who helps others with their needs. The rest of the time I am “Burke” Burke. This has worked until recently, but now my Bible reading and my motivational poster have begun challenging me.

I attended a Bible study this past Sunday afternoon and in addition to lowering the average age by 20 years, I also made the mistake of saying that I worked as a counselor. After the discussion on 1 John the woman next to me turned and asked, “So you’re a counselor?” This isn’t the first time this has happened – it’s as if I have some sort of fountain of human knowledge and can solve all problems if explained properly. After replying to the affirmative, she launched into concerns about her grandson who has an Autism spectrum disorder. After hearing her story, I told her that I would gather some information that I thought would be helpful – I’m pretty sure I had to repeat the last part several times because she continued with more and more information. Chris joked that I should explain what I do in such a convoluted way as to not beg questions. But on Monday, I printed off and stapled a packet of information for her, placed it in a big manila envelope with her name on it to give to her next Sunday – after all, we met at church and it’s the right thing to do.

Today I met with a client who through tears explained the personal hell she’s been living for the past week – my first inclination was to ask her if she wanted to pray. Now, I am personally just now getting used to the idea of constant conversation with God, and still find it awkward to pray aloud in front of people, but as she was disclosing her story, it occurred to me that while I had a few pearls of wisdom to share, I had no guarantee that they would benefit her. (I’m secretly hoping that my inclination to ask her to pray with me is a sign that I’m becoming less skeptical of prayer in general.) Instead of asking her if she’d like to pray, I handed her the pearls of wisdom and mentioned personal prayer as an option – besides, I had no way of knowing if she has the same beliefs as I do. She said that she had been praying a lot and I told her that I would pray for her. The relief on her face was so instant that I felt ashamed for not going with my gut and asking her to pray together.

These two experiences in particular have led me to question my “office hours” – why does it feel okay to bring counseling into church, but it feels weird to bring Christ into my counseling? After too much analyzing I think it boils down to this: as a Christian, there are no “office hours,” meaning that our duty as Christians and our call to love one another, pray for our enemies and help the needy isn’t reserved to Sunday mornings – it’s an every minute of everyday duty. I can ignore my work email when I leave my office, but that doesn’t shut off my responsibility to help those in need. Likewise, just because I’m on the clock doesn’t mean I shouldn’t use my faith in Christ to help my clients. After all, putting your faith in Christ to heal your wounds and navigate your trials is far greater than any psychobabble I can muster.

So in the future, I will continue to offer assistance to those who seek it outside the comfort of my office, and I will no longer insist that Christ wait outside in my car until 3:30. And while I’m adjusting to the removal of “office hours” I will continue to thank God that I am in the business of helping others and I will continue to recite my favorite phrase:

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”

- John Wesley