Helping despite the hurt

Passage – For who will hurt you if you become zealots for what is good? 1 Peter 3:13

Restated in my own words – Who is going to want to hurt someone doing good?

Application to my life – I don’t think much about people trying to harm me. I guess in part because I’m in a helping profession and believe people would want to be helped. I have worked in inner cities and had people question if I didn’t worry about my safety. I didn’t worry about my safety when I worked child welfare, I was helping families.

The one time I did question my safety, the seed was planted by another professional expressing concern about the extended family. When I arrived where I was going, out in the middle of nowhere without any cell service, things were different. I was locked out of the property by a gate I never realized was there. I was concerned for a few minutes, there was only one way out and that was to reverse down a rather treacherous dirt road lined with a few abandoned trailers. I knew that I had shared my recommendation with my client before I presented it to the court as I always did. My concern passed, and I was ultimately safe.

The people who have hurt me deeply, I still have helped, that’s what it means to help others. It is not because of what they have done, it is because that is what God created me for.

YOur response back to God – Lord, thank You for the perspective You have given me about others. I can be open to the truth of the world around me and still reach out to help.