Good Quote: Ministry of Helpfulness

Seven Principles for Eradicating Selfish Ambition in the Fellowship

4. The Ministry of Helpfulness

Active helpfulness means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service...

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps--reading the Bible. When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that not our way, but God's way must be done.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954]