Losing your life for the Lord Jesus

Jim Bahr

 

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it (Mark 8:35).

 

Losing your Life for Jesus’ Sake

Losing your life – what you want – for Jesus can come powerfully when we surrender our convenience and preferences to help out others. Doing so as part of a group or team at your ecclesia is quite wonderful, for in addition to doing good and finding our true life, you get to enjoy the fellowship of the others in whatever way you are all serving.

Sometimes though our personal situations – be it work life or family needs – make it hard to join such efforts. We can need to find a way that fits our circumstances. There are organizations available on line to help each of us to see a multitude of ways we can help, ways that use our gifts and availability best. These sites post volunteer opportunities for local charities.

Some of us will be wanting to work directly with the people we are helping; others will be happy doing important work alone. Volunteering can of course be a great way to get out of one’s normal “comfort zone” and be transformed. Some of us will have really good people skills, others not so much. Some of us will have special skills – teaching, music, art, that we can share. Some of us are excellent at being encouraging and supportive to others, others not so much. The advantage of these search sites is that you can see a wide range of possibilities for neighborly love and local charitable organizations you could work with.

Volunteer Match (volunteermatch.org) has localized webpages covering cities and larger populations throughout the US and Canada. In Canada, there may be areas where they have not yet created a nice long list of opportunities. You find the page for your local area and there’s the list. Here are some examples for places picked at random:

Location	# Opportunities	Location	# Opportunities
Edmonton AL	12	W. Monroe LA	32
Hamilton ON	Just starting up	Rockford IL	54
Vancouver BC	184	Evansville IN	35
Salem OR	449	Worcester MA	131
San Luis Obispo CA	44	Orlando FL	231
Austin TX	232	Norfolk VA	175

Happy browsing.

All For Good (allforgood.org) is another organization offering listings of volunteer opportunities in the US and Canada. You enter your location and the list shows up.

Volunteer Canada (volunteer.ca) also offers useful lists of opportunities. From their home page click on the Volunteer Centre Directory and select a webpage for opportunities near you.

As you go looking for these sites, you’ll see numerous others for your area. Some might be just what you need.

GO FOR IT! THE REWARDS ARE GREAT.