Reward for Service

In an article in Scientific American titled, "Rx for Teen Mental Health: Volunteering," Lydia Denworth writes that "helping others might help depression and anxiety." She gives three examples:

● An early experiment found that 10th graders who volunteered in an elementary school for two months showed fewer signs of harmful inflammation and lower levels of obesity compared to students who didn’t volunteer.

● A group of 14- to 20-year-olds who had been recently diagnosed with mild to moderate depression or anxiety participated in volunteer work at animal shelters, food banks, and other community organizations. They experienced a 19% reduction in depressive symptoms.

● A 2023 analysis revealed that young people who participated in community service or volunteered in the past year were more likely to be in very good or excellent health. They also tended to stay calm and in control when faced with challenges and were less likely to experience anxiety. Why? Helping others improves mood and raises self-esteem. It provides fertile ground for building social connections. It also shifts people’s focus away from negative things and can change how they see themselves.

Kindness can be addictive and one small gesture can start a chain reaction of kindness according to readers of The Wall Street Journal who have written to the newspaper to tell their story.

Theresa Gale was locking up her church recently after a long day of volunteering when a young woman approached her, asking for water and bus fare. It was late and Gale was alone. But she gave the woman a bottle of water and $15 and offered her a ride to the bus stop.

In the car, the woman asked about the church, and Gale explained that the members believe that they have a duty to help those in need. “Well, you are God to me today,” Gale says the woman responded. “I was touched,” says Gaile said. “It was as if I, too, had received a blessing.”

Possible Preaching Angl e:

“When we act kindly, the systems in our brain associated with reward light up, the same ones active when we eat chocolate. They make us want to do that same awesome thing again.” -Jamil Zaki, associate professor of psychology at Stanford University

Though he played a vital role in the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II, Navy Capt. Joseph Rochefort and his heroics long went unrecognized. Rochefort, who died in 1976, was a mid-level intelligence officer whose small unit in Hawaii provided the analysis that led to the U.S. naval victory in the Battle of Midway—the turning point of the Pacific war.

In 1929 the Navy sent three young officers, including Rochefort, to Japan to spend three years becoming fluent in the Japanese language and culture. Then in 1941 Rochefort was sent to Station Hypo at Pearl Harbor to lead a team of code-breakers. By May 1942, Rochefort believed he had sufficient evidence from intercepted Japanese radio traffic to convince Adm. Chester Nimitz that two Japanese fleets of carriers and battleships were at sea on their way to attack Midway Island. Top Navy officers didn’t accept Rochefort’s judgment.

Rochefort and his team came up with a ploy to persuade their superiors: The U.S. base at Midway would send out a message to Navy-supply services that the Midway desalination system was failing and there was a dearth of drinking water on the island. The Japanese took the bait and immediately provided desalting materials to their landing forces, thus confirming that Midway was a target for invasion.

Rochefort was vindicated. Rochefort served the rest of his career with honor, without being awarded the Distinguished Service Medal he was clearly due. That was corrected by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, when Rochefort—44 years after Midway—was posthumously given the award.

Possible Preaching Angle:

There are also many believers who faithfully serve the Lord without human recognition or applause. They will be remembered by the Lord on the day when works are judged and will be given their great reward by the One who sees all who faithfully and quietly serve him.

In June 2022, 97-year-old William Kellerman finally got the medal the army failed to give him 80 years earlier. Mr. Kellerman was 18 years old when he was drafted late in 1943. On June 6, 1944, he and thousands of other soldiers huddled on war ships as the first wave of Allied troops launched themselves into the shores of Normandy. Five days later, it was his turn to dodge German fire while running up Utah Beach.

German troops captured Kellerman. They moved him to a building that held about 80 prisoners of war. One night, Kellerman escaped. After a French family gave him new clothes, he walked and biked nearly 600 miles, picking up food where he could from French farmers, Army records show. Back home, his mother and sister feared the worst. They had received a hand-delivered letter from the U.S. Army telling them he was listed as missing as of July 22, 1944.

But instead of sending him home, his captain put him back into combat. He was part of the force that took Chames, France, and in April 1945 was hit by sniper fire in the hand and the leg. Mr. Kellerman was being treated for his wounds in an Army hospital when the war officially ended. He served until 1946, the Army said.

But despite all his incredible adventures, Kellerman never got recognized by the army—until recently. In June 2022 he received the Prisoner of War Medal and the Purple Heart long denied him. An Army spokesman said, “The Army is conducting this ceremony now to correct this unfortunate oversight.”

For Mr. Kellerman, the late-in-life recognition is an unexpected gift. “I feel like I’m coming out of the shadows and into the sunlight,” he said.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Justice; Hope; Heaven; Reward —Sometimes our good deeds are not recognized for a long time, or even in this life, but God will reward our faithfulness.

99-year-old Osceola "Ozzie" Fletcher finally received his Purple Heart. It was awarded in a ceremony at the Fort Hamilton Army base in June of 2021 for wounds he suffered in the Battle of Normandy in 1944. Army officials said that Fletcher was “overlooked” for the medal previously because of racial inequalities. Fletcher said that he was “exhilarated,” when he received the award.

The allied invasion of Normandy, France, also known as D-Day, began on June 6, 1944 and lasted until August. The operation led to the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe, and marked the beginning of the end of the European theater in World War II.

According to The New York Post, Fletcher was a 22-year-old private with the 254th Port Battalion during the military operation. He was working as a crane operator when he was hit by a German missile that left him with leg injuries and a head gash, causing a permanent scar.

Gen. James McConville said during the ceremony, “He has spent his entire life giving to those around him whether they were brothers in arms, families, or his community. Well, today it’s Ozzie’s turn to receive.”

The Army conducted a fact-finding mission regarding Fletcher’s overlooked medal and found that he deserved the award after his daughter, Jacqueline Streets, contacted the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Streets said,

My father has a gash in his head that we can still see. And obviously he was doing the job of an American soldier. I do believe he was overlooked. We’re finally looking at all of our soldiers in the same way, America is trying to shift its thinking about culture and about race and I appreciate that. I think we’re acknowledging things that happened in the past and trying to correct them moving forward.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Race; Race Relations – Every person who serves their country deserves to be honored, regardless of race or ethnicity (Acts 10:34-35, Rom. 10:12); 2) Reward; Service, reward for - God will never overlook any Christian for the service they have offered to him (Heb. 6:10).

On July 5, Heavenly Pizza in Findlay, Ohio, fulfilled 220 orders, but the restaurant didn't see a dime of its sales — instead, all $6,300, plus $1,200 in tips, went directly to employees.

Owner Josh Elchert decided to hold an Employee Appreciation Day to show his gratitude for his team and how hard they have been working during the pandemic. He said, "You can have the best pizza in the world. If you have no one here to make it, it doesn't matter."

Elchert knows his customers appreciate the pizzeria's employees as much as he does, and posted on Facebook that on July 5, he would give the entire day's sales to his workers. On a typical Monday, the restaurant fills about 100 orders, but on Employee Appreciation Day, customers came out in full force to show their support, ordering extra pies and dropping big tips.

Each employee ended up earning $78 per hour for their shift. Timmy Lemire, 20, is an assistant manager who has worked at Heavenly Pizza for five years. "I've never experienced anything like this before. It's a big gift."

In July of 2021, The New York Times ran a special 55-page section about the 2.5 million essential service workers who kept New York City alive while many New Yorkers worked remotely. One of the heroes of the story was Gustavo Ajeche, a 2004 immigrant from Guatemala.

By day Gustavo works construction. At night he delivers food for restaurants in the Financial District. His wife works as a nanny for a family in Manhattan. This job became a live-in position when her employer had her accompany them to their second home in North Carolina from March through September last year. Gustavo and his wife do not have a second house, but they do have a second extended family to support back home in Guatemala. Their jobs often get little or no recognition or praise.

But at the end of the article Gustavo said, “The pandemic was hard, but it taught me I can help. I would come home exhausted, but hearing ‘gracias” or ‘God bless you,’ that was beautiful. I’ll never forget my roots in Guatemala. I struggled for my community. But I feel like a real New Yorker now.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) The gospel tells us that through Jesus Christ we can hear God the Father’s “well done” on our life’s work. (2) Showing appreciation to others.

Author Alan Fadling asks us to consider this parable:

There was once a king who had two servants. One of the servants, for fear of not pleasing his master, rose early each day to hurry along to do all the things that he believed the king wanted done. He didn't want to bother the king with questions about what that work was. Instead, he hurried from project to project from early morning until late at night.

The other servant was also eager to please his master and would rise early as well. But he took a few moments to go to the king, ask him about his wishes for the day and find out just what it was he desired to be done. Only after such a consultation did this servant step into the work of his day, work comprised of tasks and projects the king himself had expressed a desire for.

The busy servant may have gotten a lot done by the time the inquiring servant even started his work. But which of them was doing the will of the master and pleasing him?

Genuine productivity is not about getting as much done for God as we can manage. It is doing the good work God actually has for us in a given day. Genuine productivity is learning that we are more than servants, that we are beloved sons and daughters invited into the good kingdom work of our heavenly Father. That being the case, how might God be inviting you to wait for his specific direction? Or is God inviting you to take a specific step now?

One afternoon while walking through the Norfolk General Hospital, Dr. Hugh Litchfield heard his name being called from across the lobby. As a man approached, he asked; “Hi, Dr. Litchfield, remember me?”

About 10 years earlier the young man had visited the church where Dr. Litchfield was serving. He was facing possible jail time over tax violations. This had led to alcohol dependency, which had in turn jeopardized his marriage and his relationship with is children. His life was in a desperate shape.

Dr. Litchfield explains the interaction in his book Visualizing the Sermon:

He then said to me in that lobby, "I want to thank you." "For what?" "One Sunday you preached a sermon about taking responsibility for our lives, not to blame what we become on somebody else. God used that sermon to speak to me. That afternoon I got down on my knees and prayed to God and promised to take responsibility for my life. With God's help, I did. Since that time, life has been great. I got out of trouble with the IRS, I became the master over the bottle, my marriage is better than ever. I want to thank you."

As he left me standing there, I was overwhelmed by what he had told me. . . When I went back to the office, I dug down into my sermon files to get out that sermon that had meant so much to him. Early in my ministry, on Monday morning I would jot down a phrase or two at the top of my sermon manuscript as to how I felt the sermon had gone on Sunday. For that sermon, I glanced at what I had written. "Dead in the water! No one listened! A waste of time!"

Dr. Litchfield concludes, “I have learned something along the way. If we offer faithfully to God what we have, somehow it will be used in magnificent ways. We must never underestimate what God will do with what we give.”

In the city of Brotherly Love, sometimes generosity extends past boundaries of gender or class.

According to a GoFundMe page established on his behalf, Johnny Bobbitt Jr. recently purchased a home with more than $400,000 dollars that were donated to him, all resulting from an act of kindness he made last fall.

In November 2017, motorist Kate McClure ran out of gas on I-95. While weighing her options for help, she was approached by a then-homeless Bobbitt, who walked up to her car. Bobbitt told her that the roadside area was unsafe, instructed her to lock the car's doors, and then proceeded to walk to a gas station where he spent his last $20 on a red fuel can.

Floored by his selfless generosity, McClure wrote about her interaction with him online.

"Johnny did not ask me for a dollar, and I couldn't repay him at that moment because I didn't have any cash, but I have been stopping by his spot for the past few weeks … I wish that I could do more for this selfless man, who went out of his way just to help me that day."

Several months and many donations later, Bobbitt's kindness has been returned in an overwhelming gesture of crowd-funded generosity.

Potential preaching angles: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. True love expects nothing in return. Of course God usually does not reward our good deeds with a financial windfall. But the Bible does promise that our Heavenly Father who sees in secret will reward us.

Talking about his hit song "Mean Old Man," singer songwriter James Taylor said,

This one was a big accomplishment, because it's a sophisticated song and a throwback. Paul McCartney called me up and said that when he'd first heard it, he assumed it was Frank Loesser or Cole Porter. I was, of course, absolutely thrilled. At one point, Bob Dylan told me that he'd been listening to [one of my songs] and really thought it was great, and that's enough for me. Ten critics can savage me, but I'll be fine as long as every once in a while, someone like Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney says, "Keep going, kid."

Possible Preaching Angles: Positive Illustration—Taylor reveals a truth that Christians should live by—when it comes to praise or criticism, consider the source. For us, the best source is God himself. Negative Illustration—All human applause (even from the important figures in our lives) has a short shelf life. We should look to God alone for praise and affirmation.

Aircraft carriers and cruise ships sail on blue oceans with immense reserves of power and degrees of freedom. One sort of ocean-going vessel is devoted to aggression and war, the other to comfort and leisure. Both, however, are massive, independent, floating islands of power. They navigate "strategically"—based on large-scale charts, covering vast distances, driven by economic or military considerations.

Tugboats, on the other hand, are limited to a specific harbor. A tugboat master may be one of the highest paid individuals in the shipping industry, but only in one place. To be a tugboat is to be committed to a specific place and to know it intimately. Tugboats have to be nimble, maneuverable, and responsive to the slightest variation in the sea floor or the local currents. Tugboats are not especially impressive, mechanically or visually. But they are indispensable. Tugboats, you might say, are servants. They don't navigate for themselves—they navigate to bring other ships safely to shore.

A suburban Chicago woman was left stunned over the summer when one of her patrons left a combined tip of over 1,000%. Nicole Thompson, a teacher who worked a second job as a bartender to help pay the bills, received two separate tips by the same person - one for $500, and a second for $1,000. "I said, 'I can't take this,' and he said, 'Yes, you can," she related. The generous man, the boss of a friend of Thompson's, simply said he had heard that she worked two jobs and thought she deserved it. "The rest of the day I felt like different," said Thompson, "like, what just happened here. I never anticipated that." The owner of the restaurant publicly thanked the man, saying, "Although I have never met you - your act of kindness is inspiring." The surprising generosity of one man has made national news, and has likely impacted one woman's life significantly. Perhaps a good question to be asked, then, is why we don't hear more news stories about the overwhelming generosity of Christians?

Robert Morin, a cataloguer at the University of New Hampshire's library, "lived a simple, frugal life," complete with TV dinners and a car that was more than 20 years old. He read plenty of books—thousands of them over the course of his life—and "loved to talk to students," according to UNH spokeswoman Erika Mantz. Morin passed away in March 2015, but the school announced last week that upon his death, he had left his estate to the school: an estate totaling $4 million. While reading and going about his work, Morin had "quietly amassed" a fortune.

The extraordinary gift was a first for the school: "In our history, I'm not aware of anything like this," said Mantz. Morin's wish was that UNH would spend his money to fulfill whatever needs they had; he apparently told his financial adviser that the school would "figure out what to do with it."

The humble, peaceful way in which Morin went about his life—all the while storing up massive wealth—is reminiscent of Jesus' message on how believers should go about their own lives. Instead of "announcing" our good deeds and acts of charity "with trumpets…to be honored by others" (Matt. 6:2), we are to be a little more secretive about it: "when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (6:3-4).

Potential Preaching Angles: Humility; Secrets; Rewards; Giving; Christian Living; Christian service

Cheryl A. Bachelder, the CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, turned her company around with a focus on serving others. A committed Christian in the workplace, Bachelder is also the author of Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others. In a recent interview, she share her thoughts on servanthood:

The Bible verse that's on my calendar every day is Philippians 2:3. Because I haven't found one that's more paramount to how I want to lead in my family and in my work. And that is, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." I really like the choice of words around counting others more significant than yourselves. I believe we're all born with an inner 2-year-old. And we'd really still like to be laying on the floor, kicking and screaming because we didn't get the candy bar we wanted. It's pretty hardwired that we're self-absorbed little people. And we learn to fake it well, but we're still pretty much that 2-year-old on the inside.

I find that biblical perspective really challenging in every aspect of my day—how I'm spending my time, the decisions that I make. To put them through a filter of whether I'm thinking about myself or whether I'm thinking about others. Am I doing this because I'll get a bigger bonus check? Or am I really thinking about the long-term interest of this company? Am I doing this truly for my franchise owners, or am I getting some personal benefit that I haven't been willing to acknowledge?" Those kinds of provocative self-mirror questions hold you to a higher standard. I always say servant leadership is an aspiration, because you can really never claim you've arrived. Because as soon as you do, someone will find you—and in a trap of self-interest. It's something you're always working toward.

Remember when there were 144 time zones in the United States? Probably not, because Sandford Fleming, an engineer and railroad planner, proposed a global grid of time zones that was adopted as a standard by the railroads beginning in the 1880s. Or how about when there was only enough penicillin in the world to treat a few people at a time? That was solved by Margaret Hutchinson, a resourceful chemical engineer who in the 1940s developed a fermentation method to mass-produce the drug. In the mid-1700s an unknown captain in the French military noticed that his army's cannons, while useful for fortress defenses, were too heavy to transport easily. An army on the offensive, he reasoned, needed agility above all else. So during the Seven Years War he developed a model for a smaller, more agile cannon. Eventually France could boast that it had "the most effective artillery in Europe."

A book titled Applied Minds: How Engineers Think, argues that now much our lives depend on the often hidden, unappreciated work of engineers. There are engineers for microprocessors, computer code, pharmaceuticals, rockets, electrical systems—even engineers who focus on big systems made out of smaller systems, such as air-traffic control. Yet most engineers share a few common roles—they create structures so that we can understand a problem and its solution, and then they formulate the most effective application for a given situation.

Unfortunately, in today's world, innovators and "creatives" get most of the praise for their efforts. For instance, Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, "received a statesman's funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London." He was hailed as a national hero. Margaret Hutchinson, who made the drug available to millions of people, died fairly anonymously on a winter's day in Massachusetts. But both of their roles were essential.

Brandon Cook was visiting his ailing grandmother in a New Hampshire hospital. Nearby was a Panera café. The following letter explains what happened and was posted by the family on the Panera Facebook page:

My grandmother is passing soon with cancer. I visited her the other day and she was telling me about how she really wanted soup, but not hospital soup because she said it tasted awful; she went on about how she would really like some clam chowder from Panera. Unfortunately Panera only sells clam chowder on Friday. I called the manager, Sue, and told them the situation. I wasn't looking for anything special just a bowl of clam chowder. Without hesitation she said absolutely she would make her some clam chowder. When I went to pick it up they wound up giving me a box of cookies as well. It's not that big of a deal to most, but to my grandma it meant a lot. I really want to thank Sue and the rest of the staff from Panera in Nashua, NH just for making my grandmother happy. Thank you so much!

Within days that short post received more than 800,000 likes. More importantly, more than 35,000 people took the time to write a brief Facebook message commending the bakery. The authors of the book A World Gone Social tell the story and write about the effects:

The next quarter, Panera's same-store sales increased 28 per cent. The quarter after, same-store sales were up 34 per cent. Sure, there's no way of proving that this was all a direct result of the Facebook post, but the rapidly spreading goodwill generated by one person performing one moment of kindness, amplified nearly a million times over, certainly had a significant effect.

Possible preaching angles: Of course the Bible does not promise that our kind deeds will lead to a financial profit. However, we are promised that, in his timing and in his way, God will bless the quiet deeds of kindness and service from his people.

An article in The Wall Street Journal points to research that proves what many workers already know: employees fake a positive outlook when the boss is around, and all that fakery can be exhausting. The research, reported first in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, concluded that workers tended to put on smiles and fake happiness when higher-ups were in the room. By contrast, when workers hold meetings with peers or with lower-status employees, they tend to express themselves more honestly.

In one experiment, researchers selected nearly 150 full-time employees who regularly attended workplace meetings. The participants filled out surveys about meetings they recently attended. After the researchers collected the data, it was obvious that when superiors were in the room the participants reported that they tended to hide their authentic feelings during the meetings.

The Wall Street Journal article went to say, "All this faking can be exhausting: those who feigned positive feelings actually felt less satisfied when a meeting ended, researchers found. [As one of the researchers said], 'Even if they act positive, those underlying negative feelings are still there. They feel inauthentic, which could result in lower satisfaction, or, eventually, burnout.'"

Possible Preaching Angles: Yes, this research may seem like common sense, but it still shows our need to work for the Lord without impressing others as we live before "an audience of one."

Abby Wambach, a forward (or striker) on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, formerly held the world record for most international goals, for both female and male players. In her career she has scored an astounding 177 goals, many of them on her signature move—a diving header. But Wambach quickly credits her teammates for her success. Wambach has said, "I've never scored a goal without getting a pass from someone else."

Editor’s Note: Abby was surpassed by Christine Sinclair of Canada with the most international goals (190) but this quote is still valid

In the film The Monuments Men, a woman named Claire Simone (played by Cate Blanchett), lives a very ordinary life in Paris under the oppressive Nazi regime. She's an art enthusiast who was forced to facilitate the pillaging of the great works of art of Paris. But despite the seeming hopelessness of her situation, Claire carefully cataloged each piece of art, and marked it with a small colored sticker (a "seal" you could say). She kept this catalog without knowing whether it would ever be useful or just a dusty record of art—or if it would be confiscated and destroyed. She kept meticulous records without any hope that it would come to anything. Not until James Granger (played by Matt Damon) shows up asking about these pieces of art, does an opportunity arise for her risky bookkeeping to pay off.

But up to that point, during the majority of her record-keeping, she had no idea that the Monuments Men would come along. She had no idea that anyone else cared. She was one woman in a city occupied by one of the most powerful militaries on the planet. She was one woman battling against the whole Nazi-engineered system. And for all the time before James Granger arrived, she kept working subversively and systematically, without any assurance that her work would ever be put to use.

In a similar way, Christians live in territory occupied by the Enemy. It's tempting to give up hope that our work for Christ—our small deeds of compassion and kindness, our faithfulness to our families and jobs and churches—will come to anything. But unlike Claire, Christians have an assurance of hope. Christ's resurrection guarantees our future. Our service to Christ may feel insignificant, and yet Claire exhibits for Christians an inspiring example of how to live faithfully in Enemy-occupied territory.