Title: God's Will and Volunteer Service
Contents
Jeremiah 9:23-24; 1 John 3:16-18
When I was about to get out of the confusion and wandering about the value of life, I formed a student council called “Hyemyeonghoe”. The professor who came to give a congratulatory address to the founding meeting as a supervisor said that it would have been better if the name had been called “Visitor” rather than “Hyemyeonghoe”, and said that it should be a gathering in search of “brightness” rather than a “bright and bright meeting”. I remember what you said.
Since then, my life of searching for the brightness has started again, and only recently have I vaguely learned how to find 'brightness' and unhappiness. I started to think that volunteering might be a good way to live according to the 'will of God' that I had been longing for, and that's how I live my life. Of course, just because you discover that it is God's will to spread law, love, and justice, as written in Jeremiah 9, does not mean you know God. I believe that God's will can be known little by little as we practice law, love, and justice. So I want to tell you a story about volunteering.
There was a time when I thought that I could be saved by doing good works alone. However, as can be seen from reports that Kim Hyeon-cheol and Incheon pub owner Jeong Seong-gap also did good deeds, I now know that good deeds such as volunteering alone cannot save us. However, we believe that volunteering is one of the best means to salvation.
Every civilization or culture, in any era, has a tradition of volunteering. There is a great tradition of volunteering in our country as well as in the East. According to a book written by a man named ‘Igi’, it is said that living expenses were already paid for widows, widowers, and orphans during the time of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors of China. However, in the East, there is not much research on volunteering in general and there are no organized books, so today I will mainly focus on the history and traditions of the West.
The history of volunteering in the West also comes from the roots of Western civilization. They are the Greek and Roman, and the Jewish and Christian traditions.
It is said that the Greeks largely ignored individual suffering and therefore did not consider helping individuals very valuable. It was the strong belief that each individual should take responsibility for their own life. Instead, they thought that individuals should do public interest activities for the unspecified majority during their lifetime, and that such work is something that a person should be able to do after birth, or something that can be honored. So Aristotle, who did not even serve a meal to a friend who had come a long way, even said that Bertrand Russell was very indifferent to human suffering. In fact, it can be said that Aristotle was opposed to today's social welfare policies because he warned that helping individuals fosters dependence on beneficiaries. On the other hand, the Athenian citizen Herodes Atticus built and dedicated a sewer system in the city of Troas, a theater in the city of Corinth, and a stadium in Delphi.
This tradition of Community-wide Gifts continues in the United States with the Community Foundation. In many cities, many people donate their wealth to the development of their communities, small or large, and those funds are used to solve problems such as the welfare of the community, education, crime, environment, and culture.
Rome, longing for Greece, made it possible for public interest to develop further. Around 150 BC, an inheritance law was enacted that allowed individuals to donate to organizations other than their own children, allowing numerous Fraternity organizations to be formed, and the Gracchus brothers (Tiberius and Caius) were Or they enacted laws to buy cheap grain (they later became hated by the wealthy and died).
In this way, Greece and Rome tried to solve social problems through social reform. This spirit of public interest is also compatible with Pericles' spirit of democratic citizenship. That spirit is the word for civic responsibility, and when the Athenians were freed from that responsibility, Athens no longer lost the freedom that its citizens claimed and proud of, Edward Gibbon, author of The Fall of Rome, said .
The teachings of the Puritan leaders, who valued freedom and charity, emphasized spiritual rebirth, and became the ideological basis for the independence movement criticizing Britain's moral and political corruption, resulting in the achievement of independence. In the United States, there have always been efforts to awaken religious people to political errors and educators to self-reflect on social errors. In particular, scholars who view the source of political change as the change in religious orientation said that there were three Great Religious Awakenings that brought such a change in the United States, and the first fruit of that movement was independence. Second, Timothy Dwight and his disciple Bichum, who believed that the institutional mechanism (the US Constitution) to protect the freedom gained through the War of Independence was not perfect and that it was hard to believe that it was the case, believed that people should be educated as an alternative. The Langkasian and Lyseum movement that started in this way finally brought the result of 'Slavery Emancipation' through the Civil War.
With the onset of the Civil War, Americans who suddenly could afford to care for many war orphans, widows, wounded, and alcoholics needed a more systematic way of caring for them, so traditional Charity was the donation of the wealthy. (Philanthropic Action) and volunteer activities of people with time (mainly women). And finally, a volunteer center that recruits and deploys volunteers is born.
Americans say there are three things they have contributed to the world (to brag about).
The first is American-style democracy, the second is American-style capitalism, and the third is volunteerism, which is a pillar that supports American-style democracy and is an 'another invisible hand' that complements the flaws of American-style capitalism. Americans call Volunteerism the American Spirit, but it is not unique to America. All the world's leaders place importance on volunteering, and they emphasize that volunteering is at least a clue to solving community problems and is a necessary condition for achieving world peace, conservation of the earth, and happiness. Like Cotton Mathers, Dr. Schweitzer said, "I can't teach you the way to salvation, but I'd be happy to find and help someone who needs your help."
'Finding something' is not an easy task for modern people who are pressed for time. Fortunately, the Volunteer Center does that for you. One of the good things that the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs in our country has practiced is that when a person who wants to volunteer dials 1365 (meaning that it is open 365 days a year) without an area code, the volunteer center comes out so that they can easily receive information. .
As a way of volunteering, I introduce the 1% Sharing Movement. This movement started with Let's Give 5 in the United States in the early 80's by the independent sector (similar to the Korean NGOs Association in Korea) and has achieved great results. . We are unfamiliar with donations and volunteering, so we will start with 1% and put that 1% into practice through civic groups. Therefore, the 1% sharing movement is recommended by Volunteer 21, the Korean Citizens' Association, the Community Chest of Korea, and the Citizens' Movement Support Fund. Joining at least one civic group, donating 1% of income, and at least 1 hour a week It is volunteer work.
Another way to participate is to participate in the Poom-Aid Movement held at Seocho-gu Office and Songpa-gu Volunteer Center. This is our country's traditional pumasi custom, plus free pumasi, or volunteer work, for the poor.
Volunteer activities can be divided into 4 types depending on the target.
First, Mutual Aid, Self-Help such as Alcoholic Anominous, Second Philanthropic Action or Service to Others, Third, Participation emphasized in Solidarity for Participation (Participation), and finally Advocate (Advocacy) and campaigns. In our country, participation, advocacy and campaigning are mainly carried out by civic activist groups, and they call it volunteer work, unlike what social welfare organizations that mainly do mutual aid, self-help, philanthropy and philanthropy call volunteer work.
In any case, I think that because of our low participation rate, there are many political corruption and social problems. In that sense, I would like to share my thoughts on the 'clothes lobby' incident that has angered us over the past week, borrowing the writings of Professor Park Young-shin (Yonsei University Sociology) published in the Munhwa Ilbo. "At the heart of this case is … a false life and a false idea … Citizens are honest, but not only some ignorant upperclassmen are dishonest. Born with us … We eat and drink lies, and we are all addicted to lies and accustomed to lies … Even the much-desired regime change has not been able to wash away these common lies … What we need is … work together to create a new way of life It is not enough with the lamentations of intellectuals or criticism of customary practices. It is only by dedicating the primary of devotion to the calling of truth that one can practice small truths without yielding to inertia and convenience, resisting the temptations of personal connections and power. With faith … meaningful people will come forward and start living a true life from now on.”
I believe that this is the spirit of the 1% sharing movement and the practice of volunteering. It is said that the new millennium belongs to those who bring the greatest hope. I think that people are just volunteers who let them know the will of God.