Anyone providing help or care for people will tell you that it can be a high stress, exhausting experience. This is often the case because situations are poorly communicated or misunderstood, as in the following story.
A teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots. He’d asked for assistance and the teacher quickly discovered why. With considerable pushing on the boy and pulling on the boots, the task was completed. Her relief was short-lived however, as the boy said, “Teacher, you put them on the wrong feet!”
She soon discovered that it wasn’t any easier to remove the boots than it was to put them on. But she managed to stay calm, as they worked to get the boots back on a second time; this…on the right feet. Again, her sense of achievement was shattered as the child announced, “These aren’t my boots!”
The teacher controlled her anger and refrained from shrieking, “Why didn’t you say so?” Again she struggled to pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. Seconds after the boots were off he explained, “They’re my brother’s boots. My mom makes me wear them.”
The teacher gathered her patience and for the third time wrestled the boots onto his feet. Helping him into his coat, she asked, “Now then…where are your mittens?” The little boy looked innocently into his teachers face and replied, “I stuffed them into the toes of my boots so I wouldn’t lose them.”
Mark records an interesting incident in the life of Jesus. A lady, who’d suffered with a serious, chronic ailment, believing that Jesus could heal her, reached out and touched the hem of His garment. She was healed instantly and Jesus, “…immediately knowing…that power had gone out of Him, turned around…and said, “Who touched My clothes?” (Mark 5:30).
The difference between Jesus, and the bedraggled teacher (and the rest of us) is that His power and strength were replenished immediately. How do those in helping professions rejuvenate and keep going? My answer is three-fold and based on my own personal experience.
First, I try to place the same value on people that God does. God loves people, so I must also. Second, I stay close to God through the fundamental disciplines of the Christian faith (prayer, Bible reading and fellowship with other believers). Third, I humbly accept the biblical fact that my “…labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). What I am doing pleases God and helps people. It just seems to make the boots slip on and off easier.
— Pastor Ross Helgeton is senior pastor at Erskine Evangelical Free Church