The Helpers High

“And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”

Matthew 5:41


I recently came across on social media a quote that left me laughing myself to sleep. It said, "Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares?… He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.”  Immediately I thought of one of Jesus most well known teachings in all the Bible, “The Sermon on the Mount.” Have you wondered why in Jesus teaching up on the Mount of Beatitudes that He told His disciples if someone forces you to go with them one mile not to stop once you reach the mile marker, but to keep going on another mile on your own without being asked? Maybe Jesus knew what psychologists have discovered that takes place in the brain when we willingly assist other people. It’s an effect I like to call, “The Helpers High.”

Under Jewish law if a person was moving and had a lot of stuff to carry or was transporting a heavy load that would require additional help they could go to their Jewish neighbor and tell them they needed their assistance and their neighbor was compelled under the penalty of law to lend a hand even if they didn’t know their neighbor. The law had the final say and for good reason. It took all the emotions out of a decision not to mention the thinking. Yet, its going beyond the law where true satisfaction is found.

You see friend, its going the extra mile where we experience the “Helpers High”. When we choose to live our life by the grace of God, the second mile isn’t nearly as difficult as most might think because every step taken after mile one is done by our own free will. Its much harder to do things for others when we feel compelled to do them rather than when we are free to choose to serve others in love. The law, you could say wears us out where on the other hand grace empowers us to do and accomplish more and to feel good about it in the process. Those who seek to be justified by the law soon find themselves lacking joy in their obedience compared to those who seek to go above and beyond the law by the grace that God provides in showing love and compassion to others. Those who choose to go beyond the law are those who experience a deep sense of satisfaction for the simple fact, love always goes the extra mile.

Try it today, loved one, experience for yourself the “Helpers High” by going the extra mile. above and beyond Remember, when we go the extra mile its as if we are saying, “I don’t have to do this, I get to do this”. Going the extra mile is a what moves us from merely being responsible to actually enjoying the privilege we get when we help others. Just like runners experience the euphoria of “runners high” when they train, those who serve others out of a sense of love and not just obligation get a chance to experience “helpers high” each time they go the extra mile.



“But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."

Ruth 1:16-17
 

I LOVE YOU!