Item: 1 sleeveless white t-shirt

I was helping serve hamburgers today to a group of street teens as part of Big Sunday.  I liked the center and all the people who belonged to it very much.  Over one of the archways were different color letters that spelled out THROUGH THESE DOORS THE BRAVEST PEOPLE COME. Just from what I saw, they are.  Statistically, the odds were against them even making it this far.

So I got a t-shirt, which I can look at as drawing more attention to the cause at large, which is good.  There was also a free pizza party after at the zoo, which is more opportunity to continue the day of people of all faiths getting along, and therefore also good.

I support all of this without hesitation, but I can't help thinking about the un-public acts of service happening on 364 other days of the year.  Especially I was thinking about a time, and I don't even remember the exact circumstances, but I had felt drawn to contribute to this one particular thing - I felt uniquely placed to be able to meet this one particular need, and then later they sent me some nice gift in return.  This really bothered me.  I didn't want anything back.  It was almost like they had no regard for the desire I had to give of myself, that they felt that I should be compensated.

This is common, though, to get something back.  I know there is a whole fundraising industry and in cases like multimillionaires donating huge amounts to the symphony, maybe something like that is expected.  But in general I don't want organizations that are involved in good causes to use their money toward doing nice things for me.  It frustrates me that an essentially human and personal act of trying to rise above selfishness gets diluted in this way.

Recently I saw the results of a Westmont alumni survey, in which one of the questions was what you would prefer to get in recognition for donating money to the college.  The options were things like a letter of thanks, a gift, a special dinner/event, a phone call of thanks, getting your name on a plaque.  The most popular answer was that people said they wanted nothing.

Further, I should point out that me talking about this at all basically has the same effect as "Hey, everyone, I volunteered some of my time this weekend." Something is changed about today even in that transmission of information.  As in Matthew 6:

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

A person almost has to arrange matters very cleverly to pull off giving something without being compensated, or even acknowledged.  But isn't that why it's known as a selfless action? One of the characters in the Lloyd Douglas book Magnificent Obsession is this eccentric surgeon who goes around helping people only on the condition that they not tell anyone, and this germinates a whole network of people who are going out and doing the same.  The result of this is much joy and laughter, and it's too bad I report this through reading about it rather than firsthand.