Serving others
actually may benefit our own wellbeing!
Today
let’s examine ways in which the Bible helps us with our daily life and
wellbeing. Last week we explored how adherence to basic Christian principles of
daily living such as prayer, praise, fellowship, receiving Biblical teaching
and outreach (Acts 2:42-47) can be a tool we use to enhance personal wellbeing.
Now
let’s focus on one aspect of these principles, personal service. Teleios recently
evaluated the effect of personal service on wellbeing at Grace Community Church
(MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, Stewart WC. Association of strength of community service to personal
wellbeing. Community
Ment Health J 2014;50:577-582). We surveyed 309 adults in two services on one Sunday.
The survey
showed that individuals who routinely participated in a community or church-based
service program, compared to those who did not, had better wellbeing scores in contentment,
peace, joy, purpose and community acceptance. Wow! Who wouldn’t want that? Additionally, people who
served had a better global wellbeing score (average of seven questions
together) than those who did not serve.
Interestingly,
the study showed
the benefit of service might occur with as little as just one hour a week
helping others! The benefit was even greater
when people served up to 6 hours per week. In addition, the perceived benefit of the service did not depend on
the type of service, whether in the church or in non-church sponsored community
service.
That
leads us to ask why personal service would help wellbeing. We don’t know this
answer for certain but there are several potentials:
v
Serving
others provides us with a sense of purpose.
v
Serving
provides a comfort that our lives are useful.
v
When
we serve we realize we are being obedient and living consistently with God's desires.
v
Serving
takes our eyes off ourselves so we don’t focus just on our problems, but also on
assisting others.
This
raises the question; do all types of community service impact wellbeing
equally? In other words, does
spiritual service have as much impact as service that is purely social?
Thanks for visiting. I look forward to seeing you again next week.
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