I Hear You Help People, Will You Help Me?

One evening in April many years ago, I was standing outside the building where my evening classes were at the time waiting for the door to be unlocked. A young lady from Vietnam walked up and I greeted her in Vietnamese. It was shortly after sundown, so she could not tell if I was from Vietnam or not. She asked me if I was Vietnamese and I joked her with saying yes. The door was unlocked and it was time to go in, so I didn’t think any else about it, but she did.

She asked one of her friends from Vietnam who I was and her friend told her I am the teacher who helps people. So during the break time, she came up to me and said, “I hear you help people” and then she asked, “Will you help me?” She was 23 years old and fairly new to America. She wanted to go to college, but no one in her family had ever gone to college..

We started meeting at a library near her house to study together on Sunday afternoons, After she got her driver’s license, she joined my weekend groups. She did graduate college in Accounting and got married. Now she helps her husband with his small business.

In the numerous small things we do over the years living for Jesus, we accumulate a reputation. Other people are watching us. I am so thankful that Jesus transformed my life from being someone who didn’t care about others to become a man who cares about refugees and immigrants. Jesus changed me and, as a result, changed my reputation. This brings to mind Psalm 34:

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun

If we delight in our relationship with Jesus, with God, he will do things for us that we could not imagine. God has blessed me to be able to share his love with people from all over the world. It springs out of my relationship with Jesus. Step by step and through small ways of sharing his love, Jesus has completely revamped my reputation to the point that a shy young woman would ask me for help in preparing for college.

But here’s the thing, I did not know that was the desire of my heart until after I began living for Jesus. He changed my heart and my desires.He knows what makes us tick better than we do. He doesn’t look at who we are to call us to do something. He looks at who we will become because of him. Our desires change the closer we are with Jesus.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.