Would you like to serve?

Would you like to serve? Do you, like many of us, think you need money, talent, skills, and all sorts of resources you may think you do not have before you start?

I see so much need around me. Homelessness, poverty, war torn families, abducted, exploited, abused women and children, and many more. Grief and misery are all around us and many of us could, and should, do more than we do to try and ease pain and need.

I just now learned about a garbage collector in Bogota, Colombia, who has amassed more than 20 000 books thrown in the trash, and which he has rescued to build a library in his humble home for children from poor families to visit and do their homework with.

His goal? To eradicate ignorance. In his own words, “ The day ignorance is finally eradicated from the planet, we may perhaps enjoy global peace. “

Do you see suffering? Do you yourself need to be rescued? Service to others, when done with sincerity and joy, will bring blessings of happiness, physical and mental health and much more to both, the recipient and the giver.

The positive energy which flows from one who loses him or herself in service to the one who receives it with gratitude will alleviate the pain each is suffering. It is a win-win situation. Like Jose Alfredo Gutierrez, from Bogota, Colombia, discovered, you do not need much more than eyes to see a need, a heart’s desire to do something, and the courage to take the first step.

So, where do we start? We start where we are. We start with what we have. We start by looking around us for those feeble knees, and downcast faces. We start by caring. And we let the miracles happen.

In the wise words which Gordon B. Hinckley shared in his book, Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes. “ The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired.”

Do we need some healing? Then, let us climb a little higher that we may lift another. Let us get out of our comfort zone and reach out to others. Let us believe we already have what someone else is needing. And let us start right now. The vital energy that will be released will course our bodies strengthening them and healing them.

Hope, charity and love are the three virtues which qualify anyone for the work, that at the end of our lives we may be measured not by the millions of dollars we have stashed somewhere earning us ephemeral interest, but by the millions of little acts of service which earned us something much more valuable... a friend.

Only my opinion as a Mormon, Single, Chinese/Western doctor, and A Woman.