Outside the Box

Sometimes people choose to do things over and above what is expected or outside of the realm of what is predicted or mandated.  In the process, others may be helped, encouraged, or blessed.

Senior adults in the Netherlands are said to be some of the happiest and rank #4 for quality of life.  Instead of traditional nursing homes, the seniors live in a house with up to 7 residents.  These homes are replicas of the ones built in the 1950’s, since that is where most of their clear memories originate.   College students may live in the homes for free in exchange for 30 hours of activities with the senior adults each month. The residents feel more connected with the outside world when interacting with the young people.

Cody Gross is the head football coach for Athens High School in northern Alabama.  He realizes that coaching is more than just teaching young men how to play and win games.  They also need to be taught to be winners in life.  With such a conviction, Coach Gross recruited Defensive Coach Steve Carter to set aside time each week to teach the athletes how to do some basic life lessons.  Thus began “Manly Mondays” where the young men learn to…

* Look people in the eye and give a firm handshake

* Change a tire

* Check the oil and transmission fluid in the car

* Tie a neck tie

* Do basic plumbing

* Magnetize a screwdriver

…and the list goes on.  For Mother’s Day he told the young men to be creative and make something for their mom.  Coach Gross also emphasized that they are to treat women with respect and to do things for them.  About young people, Coach concluded, “We’re here to try to grow them up into being a man and a woman.  That’s what we’re here for; that’s my purpose in life.  I think that’s why I live and breathe is to spread the good news.”

The Alternative Learning Center in Dubuque, Iowa, is a school that reaches out to junior and senior high students who often struggle with schoolwork and are at risk of dropping out of school.  The school offers independent as well as project-based learning, in order to encourage and help their students succeed.  The last two weeks of the semester the students were offered the opportunity to receive credit for their P.E. class by completing yard work or other assignments for the elderly or disabled.  The students helped with the landscaping program by mowing lawns, raking leaves, trimming hedges, weeding gardens, and chopping firewood.  Some chose to participate by cleaning up a river barge or the golf course.  Tim Hitzler, a teacher at the school told KWWL, “giving the students this option during the last two weeks of classes is a great opportunity for them to give back while getting a workout at the same time.  The act of helping others is what makes the program so impactful.”  Some of the students chose to continue volunteering over the summer.  Hitzler said some students come back to help even after they graduate.  “There’s something about helping people that really need it.”

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 5:13

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

Ephesians 6:7-8

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10