I helped some friends move from their apartment into a new house a few days ago. The day was gorgeous-slight breeze, warm sun, sky bluer than anything Crayola could manufacture-and, honestly, it would have been a wonderful day to laze in my hammock and fall asleep while I read.
But, my friends needed help lugging their stuff, and oddly enough, I wanted to be there with them. At the end of the day I was tired, my back was a touch sore, but I was happy. Had I spent the day in the hammock, I would have been rested but not nearly as content. Had I (God forbid) been moving my stuff into a new house, I would have been twice as exhausted and endlessly grumpy. I guess that's what differentiates work from help. Work is really something you do for yourself. Help can be just as physically and emotionally taxing, but it is much more palatable.
With the Bishop's Barbeque slowly reviving itself, and its next installment approaching this Memorial Day Weekend, I (and the rest of the planning committee) would like to ask you pointedly to not work with us. We don't want you to work on anything BBQ-related before the weekend itself; we don't want you to work on finding items for the Silent Auction; we don't want you to work in the kitchen or serving lines. We need you to help us.
The Apostle Paul writes at length about the different ways to serve the Church. "There are a variety of gifts," he says in one of his letters to the young church in Corinth, "but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord." And, if I may paraphrase, there are different ways to help, but there is only one Gray Center. The Barbeque is one of the cornerstone fundraisers for Gray Center and its many ministries-Camp Caritas, the multiple summer sessions at Bratton-Green-and any way you can help will be appreciated. Even if all you can do is come up on Memorial Day weekend, buy a meal ticket, and enjoy the fellowship of others in one of the Diocese's most holy places, we will welcome. However, if you can help in any of the ways indicated in the Wish List published in this and subsequent editions of The Mississippi Episcopalian, then we will welcome that too.
If you are able to help us, it might be tiring. It might not. You might spend a few hours in the hot early-summer sun. You might not. Regardless of how you are able to help us, I can guarantee that it will be fulfilling, nourishing, and just possibly, a whole lot of fun.
