It's Time for a Heart Check-up...

"Can I interview you?"

Usually, I am the one asking this question. But yesterday, it was my turn to be interviewed--by my best friend (who is in seminary). The topic? Volunteering.

Here are a few of the sample questions (how I remember them anyway):

1. What kind of volunteer work do you participate in?
   
2. Do you think it's more important to volunteer at church or in the community? Why or why not?
   
3. How did you start volunteering?
   
4. What motivates you to volunteer?
   
5. What level of time commitment is required as part of your volunteer work?
   
6. If you could change anything at organization you volunteer with, what would it be?
   
7. What do you think makes your role as a volunteer different from a full-time staff member?

Just to name a few. :) It was an interesting conversation--for my future pastor friend to think about what volunteers go through (though as a PK and long-time volunteer herself, she has a pretty good idea!). But is was also good for me to think once again about why I do what I do.

After we talked about time commitment, my friend replied, "Whoa! Seriously, sometime you should log the hours for a month--it would just be interesting to know."

I am far from perfect. But if I could change anything at church or in community organizations it would be this--I wish more people realized how fun and rewarding it can be to volunteer--because ultimately, you have the ability to make a positive impact on someone else's life.

I know that might sound corny or cliche. But as I was being inteviewed, I was thinking of stories...of faces...people whose lives have changed for the better since I first met them.

I will never take the credit for the girl who once had low self-esteem, but is now dreaming of going to college. I'm not the reason why a young couple has a renewed passion for reaching out to friends who don't know God. I am not completely responsible for the shy guy who now has a group of friends he can count on or for the old man at the altar with tears streaming down his wrinkled cheeks.

But through volunteering, I played a part in their transformations. And there's something really cool about that.

So on those Sunday mornings when I'd rather hit the snooze button, Saturday afternoons when I'd rather hang out with my friends, or Thursday nights when I'd rather watch "The Office" (live!)--I will try to forget my own selfishness and remember--those faces, those people, those lives that are forever changed.