Volunteer

This afternoon I’m going to an awards ceremony. I’m going because I have been invited. I’ve been invited because I have now been a volunteer for five years. And evidently that’s enough to get me invited to the awards ceremony for volunteers. I have no idea what will happen, but it’s nice to be invited. I won’t be the only person there, there will be others, but I will be there too. I will be there because I have now been a volunteer counsellor with St. Catherine’s Hospice for five years. I love the work. I love the privilege of sitting with people in their loss and walking with them for a little of their journey. It actually costs me to be a volunteer counsellor. The counselling world is very demanding. I have to attend supervision every two weeks, which the Hospice provide, but I have to be a registered data controller, which costs me and I have to do thirty hours of professional development every year, most of which costs me. But today I am going to an awards ceremony. It’s nice to be noticed. Things is, I’ve been a volunteer pretty much my whole adult life. I’ve run after school clubs, been a volunteer swimming teacher, the chairman of the Easter Team, a school governor and Chair of Governors, been on a Scripture Union Beach Mission Team and become the team leader. There hasn’t been a time I can remember when I haven’t been a volunteer! And for most of the time I have been volunteering in more than one place at a time. And, for most of those things there has been no award ceremony. In fact, today will be the first time I have ever been to one! I’m sure it will be lovely. It will be nice to be noticed and thanked. Not that I need it. I’ll volunteer anyway. But I appreciate it. It’s got me thinking. I have tried to thank volunteers. Maybe I haven’t done enough. I haven’t ever put on an award ceremony. I have organised “posh” meals, with some form of entertainment as a way of saying “Thank You!” I hope that’s been helpful. While it’s not always been overtly Christian (my counselling work is not overtly Christian) I have volunteered because it is a way of living out the truth of what Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15 v 58 NIV) Or, “…nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (NLT) When we live in the truth of the Kingdom of the Heavens, and when we follow God as best we know how, he can use all that we offer. We may never see what God does with what we offer. There will be no award ceremony. But, we don’t serve in vain. It is not useless. And one day, one fine day, God will bring it all to fulfilment. And what a celebration that will be. I think I might carry on volunteering!