I am really enjoying watching the TV series This is Us. I’m sure many of you are watching it also! One of the main characters, Randall and his wife, have been torn as to what they could do to give back – to help people in real need.

So, they bought an apartment building that was falling apart. It was where Randall’s deceased father had lived. Now they could go in and literally help the people there by fixing their many needs: They repaired walls, doors and AC units. They also were in the process of getting the complex up to code.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because so many of us truly want to help others. And we keep thinking the needy is “out there” but we don’t have the tools to help; we don’t know where to start.

Action Plan

But even though we may not have the money to buy a whole apartment building, we may have a few hours a week to:

1. Seek out those in your neighborhood or community who also need help fixing up their homes or need some help with transportation, etc.
2. Put together meals for children to take home over the weekend.
3. Look for single moms who need help.
4. If it’s hard to locate someone who needs help, give your name to your church, senior citizen center or school and they can connect you with needs.
5. If you are a stay-at-home mom, swap phone numbers with other moms who may need you in the afternoons when school is out.
6. Help your local food pantry by volunteering, taking food or collecting food in your neighborhood.
7. Volunteer for a charity that supports your passion in an area of helping others.
8. Volunteer at a local hospital and share your time with those who are ill or in hospice.
9. Organize a Giving Tree for your community: Each person who wants to help gives money four times a year. The chairperson takes that money and helps people right there who may not have time for all the red tape.
10. Volunteer at a day-care center. Many of those small children would love to have someone rock them, read to them or play outside with them.

But remember. Your first ‘people in need’ are your immediate family. Make sure their needs are being met before you spend your time and energy on others. I’ve seen children from well-to-do families not have lunches for school or permission slips not signed just because their parents were too busy working, etc.

Manna from Heaven

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me,’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink?

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

Spiritual Insight

This above verse does not mean you have to work for our salvation!  Only Jesus can save us with His blood. But once saved, the Holy Spirit now in us calls us to “love one another” in action and in truth. (James 1:22, 2:20)