Meaningless?

I was told to serve the guests, not to stop and chat. I was told that today is going to be one of their busiest days, and that we must do our best to keep things moving smoothly. I worked as efficiently as I knew how, serving the guests their drinks, and making sure they had any condiments they needed. Others were there to talk with the guests, even pray with them if they felt so led. Totally focused on the task at hand, I was working as hard as I could. That is, until an older, gray-haired woman asked for my help pouring her orange juice. I soon realized that she was blind and obviously needed my help.

As I poured her juice and placed the cup in her hand, she started pouring out her heart. There, in the middle of this busy New York City soup kitchen, she began to tell me all about herself, her life, and the great amount of heartache she had endured throughout it. At first, I could only think about the rest of the volunteers that I had committed to help, and how, by talking with this woman, I was essentially abandoning them.

However, as she continued to talk to me, I realized how much she needed to be heard and to have someone genuinely want to listen to her. She had come there with a hunger for so much more than food; she was craving love. It was at that moment that I realized that even though I had made a commitment to help serve, my presence was needed here, to listen and offer words of love and encouragement. I ended up talking with this woman (who I later came to know as Edith) for about an hour, until the soup kitchen began to close for the day.

Throughout this experience, I learned that when faced with a decision, the answer is not always the easiest choice, or the one that will cause the least amount of disturbance. It is not necessarily what another thinks I should do, or even what the authorities placed over me say I should do. When faced with a decision between two seemingly good paths or actions, I have learned that I have to consider what is truly more valuable. I have to think about the importance of relationships versus getting a job done. For without relationships, life is simply a series of meaningless tasks.

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