By Rachel Huffaker
As Community Outreach Day and Brigham Awards draw near, I’ve become preoccupied with service. On Jan. 16, thousands of volunteers will participate in various service projects: blood drives, cleaning, charity performances, etc. It’s a great way for BYU to reach out to the community.
But what about inside BYU? What are we doing to help those we live, work and study with?
I have a condition that makes walking difficult on a “flare-up” day. It usually takes about 10 minutes to walk from the Marriott Center to the library. On flare-up days, that same journey takes me 30 minutes. One such day was Tuesday.
As I hobbled down the sidewalk, students and faculty passed by without a glance. Even when pained tears sprang to my eyes, no one deviated their course. (To his credit, one enthusiastic freshman bade me good morning as he sped past.) Cars decided I was too slow to wait for and accelerated by. Two nearly hit me. Everyone was in a hurry. No one had time.
This article is not about me, though. This is about what we all do every day. This is about giving directions to that lost freshman, picking up a stranger’s textbooks, or giving the notes to a sick classmate.
I’m reminded of the story James E. Faust told at the April 1998 General Conference.
“A group of religion instructors [were] taking a course on the life of the Savior and focusing particularly on the parables. When the final exam time came . . . the students arrived at the classroom to find a note that the exam would be given in another building across campus. Moreover, the note said, it must be finished within the two-hour time period that was starting at that moment.
“The students hurried across campus. On the way they passed a little girl crying over a flat tire on her new bike. An old man hobbled painfully toward the library with a cane in one hand, spilling books from a stack . . . . On a bench . . . sat a shabbily dressed, bearded man [in obvious distress].
“Rushing into the other classroom, the students were met by the professor, who announced they had all flunked the final exam. The only true test of whether they understood the Savior’s life and teaching, he said, was how they treated people in need. Their weeks of study . . . had taught them a great deal of what Christ had said and done.
“In their haste to finish the technicalities of the course, however, they failed to recognize the application represented by the three scenes that had been deliberately staged. They learned the letter, but not the spirit. Their neglect . . . showed that the profound message of the course had not entered into their inward parts.”
Don’t get me wrong: finals, class and work are very important. But, are we so preoccupied that we cannot take the minute to stop and help those we meet along the way? Are we so caught up in the “good” temporal things that we overlook the “better and best” spiritual things? At BYU, we study the scriptures and apply the teachings of the Savior as part of our curriculum. Will we return to Heavenly Father for our “final” and be told that we have completely missed the point?
Service does not need to be grandiose or planned. Scheduled projects like Community Outreach Day are excellent ways to get involved, but not all service must be so. It can be as simple as holding the elevator door, giving directions, or waving someone through at a stop sign.
Take that extra second. Take time to serve.
Rachel Huffaker is a senior studying Humanities-History and is from Eagle, Idaho. This viewpoint represents her opinion and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Daily Universe, BYU, its administration or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
