“Leah, you have so much time.”
This phrase rings in my ears as I talk to Leah Campbell, a sophomore social work major, about her experience serving in the Jackson community. With the COVID-19 pandemic and recent snow days, we have more time on our hands now than ever before. But even now, we never seem to have enough. Our fast-paced, American mindset segments and commodifies time. As we grow, we learn different strategies on how to handle the hours and minutes of our day. As college students, we learn to “manage” our time. As professionals, we learn to “value” our time. But even with the latest planner and guru knowledge at our side, the hustle and grind exhausts until there is little left to share with the world.
As Christians, sometimes it is no different. We are called to love and serve those around us, but this can prove a challenge. Like so many of us, Campbell felt like she never had time in her busy college schedule to serve in the community, but last fall her mindset changed.
“The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Leah, you have so much time,’” said Campbell. “I heard that at every stage of life, people have different amounts of things. When you’re older, you may have more money, but when you’re younger you have more time. That really spoke to me. I have all this time and what am I doing with it? And how am I actually spending it?”
As I continued to talk with Campbell, she described how God put it on her heart to serve. Eventually she went with her roommate and some friends to serve off-campus in the Jackson community. Though she has only had the opportunity to serve for a short time, Campbell explained how drastically the experience shifted her mindset.
“Serving puts yourself in a position to say ‘This world does not revolve around me,’ and that’s really valuable to understand,” said Campbell. “We live in a huge world. It is so much bigger than us and there are so many problems – homelessness, addictions and rape – that are not seen or heard. It’s easy to forget that those exist in the Union bubble. I became really aware of that and my eyes were open to that need.”
Throughout my time talking with Campbell, it became clear that choosing to serve those around us is so much more than three hours on a Tuesday afternoon. It is about fundamentally shifting how you view time itself and its purpose in your life.
Emily Shoemaker, coordinator for service and events in the Office of University Ministries, echoed this sentiment. She sees serving as an opportunity to take part in God’s redemptive story, in your life and the lives of those around you. As coordinator for the Serve Team on Union’s campus, Shoemaker connects Union students with organizations across the Jackson community.
Shoemaker expressed that serving where you are at Union is important, but reaching beyond Union’s campus allows students to meet needs of people that could really use someone in their life, whatever that may look like.
Both Shoemaker and Campbell encourage students to evaluate the time they do have and consider whether they should use it to serve in the community around them. Union offers multiple practical opportunities for students to serve throughout the year. Campus & Community Day, Serve Team and department-led drives are great opportunities to get involved.
Beyond just taking a set time of the week to serve, Shoemaker encourages students to challenge their mindset concerning time. In this age of immediacy, it is normal, expected and, dare I say, celebrated to be busy. Even as Christians we measure our worth by how the days are filled. But what if, instead of learning to “manage” or “value” our time, we learn to surrender it? What if we were truly available to those around us in need?
“What does it look like to be available to other people and for people to feel like they can come to you when they need something?” said Shoemaker. “I think a very practical way for that is just training your mind to be more aware of the people around you, and when you see a need, doing something about it instead of thinking someone else will.”
