Helping Others

Today I read a great article in the New York Times which documents various studies supporting the thesis that volunteerism helps the volunteer in many ways. Much research has been done in this area of altruism, and in every case the patients have better physical outcomes when they have participated in programs that focus on other hurting people:

“There’s no question that it gives life a greater meaning when we make this kind of shift in the direction of others and get away from our own self-preoccupation and problems,” said Stephen G. Post, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University on Long Island and a co-author of “Why Good Things Happen to Good People” (Broadway, 2007). “But it also seems to be the case that there is an underlying biology involved in all this. An array of studies have documented this effect. In one, a 2002 Boston College study, researchers found that patients with chronic pain fared better when they counseled other pain patients, experiencing less depression, intense pain and disability. Another study at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., also found a strong benefit to volunteerism, and after controlling for a number of variables, showed that elderly people who volunteered for more than four hours a week were 44 percent less likely to die during the study period."

These are pretty amazing statistics, and should lead all of us to concentrate on helping others, for their sakes and ours. Sounds like a very biblical idea to me...

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but the interests of others." (Phil 2:4)

We give ourselves away for the sake of others, and they are blessed, but somehow it works out well for us. A win-win situation!