Candice's Comments

Get Off Your Donkey! Help Somebody and Help Yourself is the title of Reggie McNeal’s newest book. Using one of Jesus’ most famous parables, the Story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37, McNeal says “You’ve been sitting on your donkey long enough!”

In this parable, Jesus points to a man who gets down from his donkey and helps someone in dire need. With great energy and enthusiasm, McNeal challenges us to dismount, get messy, and live a life that makes a real difference.

He lifts up two mutually reinforcing truths:

· Helping others is often the best path for our own personal development.

· As we become more the person we are designed to be, we increase our capacity to serve others.

  But first we must make a decision to get off our donkey!

The story of the Good Samaritan was one of the focus scripture at my ordination. So when I heard Reggie McNeal speak at General Assembly and read the title of his book, I was hooked. I needed to buy and read this book.

 McNeal challenges us to get out of the church business and into the people business. We are not called to do church better, but to be church better. Being church is about relationships.

Jesus had little patience with institutional religion that cared for its own needs while neglecting the plight of ordinary people. McNeal invites us to recalibrate our spiritual efforts to move from church-centric service to greater community engagement in order to do our essential part in creating a world worth living in.

In fact, helping others actually helps the one doing the service just as much as the one being served.  Serving is the very best way to learn about ourselves and grow spiritually.

God created the church to be a people partnering with God in God’s redemptive mission in the world.  When we act as people of blessing, when you and I get off our donkeys and help people, we are keeping the covenant of what it means to be the people of God. As we move out of self- centeredness, self-consciousness, and self-absorption, we actually discover what we are seeking – to be truly alive!

Are you ready to get off your donkey and help somebody and yourself? Me too!

Blessings, 

Candice