Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) led a full life. He was a renown theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. For Schweitzer, service to others was both a responsibility and a joy. He undertook great feats of service as a medical doctor and missionary in Lambarene, Africa which brought him world recognition and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. But he also continually looked for opportunities to help others in small, seemingly inconsequential ways, whether it be helping a woman struggling with her luggage on a railway platform, writing a letter of encouragement to a high school student, or nursing a orphaned pelican back to health. He knew that few people have been graced with the opportunity or motivation for great service, but we all have the ability, and the spiritual need, to perform many small acts of kindness.
In October 1949 he published an article in Reader’s Digest entitled “Your Second Job”. In it Schweitzer writes about the valuable contributions we all can and should make to decreasing the pain and increasing the happiness of others. Here are some excerpts from that article:
Often people say, “I would like to do some good in the world. But with so many responsibilities at home and in business, my nose is always against the grindstone. I am so tied up in my own affairs that I find it virtually impossible to devote time to anything more.”
This is a common and dangerous error. In helpfulness to others, every person can find his or her own doorstep adventures for the soul – our surest source of true peace and lifelong satisfaction. To know this happiness, one does not have to neglect duties or do spectacular things.
This career for the spirit I call “your second job.” In this there is no pay except the privilege of doing it. In it you will encounter noble chances and find deep strength. Here all your reserve power can be put to work, for what the world lacks most today are individuals who are willing to occupy themselves with the needs of others. In this unselfish labor a blessing falls on both the helper and the helped.
Without such spiritual adventures the man or woman of today walks in darkness. In the pressures of modern society we tend to lose our individuality. Our craving for creation and self-expression is stifled; true civilization is to that extent retarded.
What is the remedy? No matter how busy one is, any human being can assert his or her personality by seizing every opportunity for spiritual activity. How? Through our second job: by means of personal action, on however small a scale, for the good of others. You will not have to look far for opportunities.
Our greatest mistake, as individuals, is that we walk through our life with closed eyes and do not notice our chances. As soon as we open our eyes and deliberately search we see many who need help, not in big things but in the littlest things. Wherever you turn, with your eyes truly open, you will find someone who needs you.
One day I was travelling through Germany in a third-class railway carriage and was sitting next to an eager youth who sat as if looking for something unseen. Facing him was a fretful and plainly worried old man. Presently the lad remarked that it would be dark before the train reached the nearest large city.
“I don’t know what I shall do when we get there,” the elderly man commented anxiously. “My only son is in the hospital, very ill. I received a telegram instructing me to come at once. I must see him before he dies. But I am from the country and I am afraid I will get lost in the city.”
Upon hearing this, the young man replied, “I know the city very well. Although it is not my stop, I will get off with you and take you to your son. Then I will catch a later train.”
As they left the compartment they walked together like brothers.
Who can assay the effect of that small kind deed? You, too, can watch for the little things that need to be done…
…From a feeling of embarrassment, too often we hesitate to approach a stranger. The fear of being repulsed is the cause for a great deal of coldness in the world; Though it may seem that we are being indifferent, in reality, we are often just showing timidity. The adventurous soul must break that barrier, resolving in advance not to mind a rebuff. If we dare with wisdom, always maintaining a certain reserve in our approach, we find that when we open ourselves we open doors in others.
Organized welfare work, is, of course, necessary; but the gaps in it must be filled with personal service, performed with loving kindness. A charitable organization is a complex affair; like an automobile, it needs a broad highway to run on. It cannot penetrate the little bypaths; those are for men and women to walk through, with open eyes and hearts full of comprehension.
We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor to a government. “Am I my brother and sister’s keeper?” Most certainly I am! I cannot escape my responsibility by saying the State will do all that is necessary. It is a tragedy that nowadays so many think and feel otherwise.
Even in family life children are coming to believe they do not have to take care of the old folks. But old-age pensions do not relieve children of their duties. To dehumanize such care is wrong because it abolishes the principle of love, which is the foundation in building up human beings and civilization itself.
You may think that it is a wonderful life my wife and I have in the equatorial jungles of Africa. That is merely where we happen to be. But you can have a still more wonderful life by staying where you happen to be and putting your soul to the test in a thousand little trials, and winning triumphs of love. Such a career of the spirit demands patience, devotion, and daring. It calls for strength of will and determination to love: the greatest test of anyone. But in this hard “second job” is to be found the only true happiness.
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” – Marian Wright Edelman
Have an AWE-full weekend!
Bill