Category: Self-Help Publisher: Great Unpublished
ISBN-10: 1588983978
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 128
Copyright: Jan 1 2001
In God Helps Those Who Help, Father Berkery shows you how you can make a difference. The method he teaches is simple, effective, and proven. By following Father Berkery's techniques and going outside of yourself to be with others in need, you'll discover your reaching out lets you and a friend, relative or complete stranger walk away winners every time. The key is to be able to see flags, read the signs, be there when it looks like the worst has finally arrived. You don't need to be a professional to help. You just have to trust yourself.
Many people today are confused and disturbed by the incredible spate of bad news all around us. Some of us will no longer read the newspaper or watch TV news because it is all so depressing. How can we make it all go away? The fact is we can do something about it. We can reach out to help those whose lives are spinning crazily in a never-ending whirl of despair and darkness. We are our brothers keeper. The key is to be able to see the flags, read the signs, be there when it looks like the worst has finally arrived. You dont need to be a professional to help. You just have to trust yourself. If you love your own life, you will want to share. In God Helps those Who Help, Father Berkery shows you how you can make a difference. The method he teaches is simple, effective and proven. By following Father Berkerys techniques and going outside of yourself to be with others in need, youll discover your reaching out lets you and a friend, relative or complete stranger walk away winners every time.
Excerpt
Malcom was your ordinary high living young executive. At 32, he seemed to have easily reached the top of the heap. He was married, with two children, a nice home in the suburbs, along with an understanding wife, an excellent job, vacations, credit cards, two sports cars and a station wagon. One morning, he came home early from his prestige job and carefully checked each room in his spacious, well kept home. Satisfied he was alone in the house, Malcom went into his bedroom, locked the door, opened the drawer of the bedside table, pulled out his Saturday night special, put it into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Within seconds, he was dead. No one found him until a week later, when the wife and young children returned from a vacation trip in the Poconos.
A sad story, yes. Unusual no. More and more cases like Malcom's are cropping up around our country. No one can tell you what went wrong. None of the experts have their fingers on the answer as to why a person who seemingly had everything to live for, just one day pulled the curtain and called it quits. One thing we do know, however. Malcom was unhappy about life. He didn't want anymore. We also can be sure he was sending out signals, but judging by his family and friends' reactions to his suicide, no one heard him. He hadn't been able to make contact to get the help sorely needed.
Irene is 67 years old. She always had a difficult life. Her childhood was during the depression years. She managed to get married and had a lot of children, just like her mother before her. She married only once, but her husband died young, leaving her the children and little else. Yet she was able to bring up her kids and give them the chances she never had. A good woman by anyone's standards, Irene goes to church, believes in God and country. Although lately she likes to be by herself, Irene is still a respected member of her community, a pillar thereof. So what does Irene end up with? A hideous cancer eating away at her. She should be gone in a short time, so the doctors tell her. She now spends her time between painful chemotherapy and a small room in her hometown. She watches cable TV. She just sits and waits. No one comes to see her. Even her relatives call only if necessary. Irene too is sending out signals, asking for help. The professionals are already doing what they can, but there are others, supposedly more needy than her. Her church is open to her on Sunday and on their terms. She tries to make mass and communion when her torn body lets her. Otherwise, she sits and stares at the screen, looking but not seeing, her eyes vacant and cold.
Tracey is only 17, but already her life is filled with pain and disillusionment. She has been on drugs, and knows all about sex and alcohol. She went that route when her parents divorced and her father walked out of her life. She sees daddy every so often, but somehow it's not the same. Her brother and older sister cannot understand her, so they don't even try. Her friends are all too busy or into their own stuff to pay attention to her. They have their own lives to live. So Tracey is handled by appointment by the professionals. They are doing their best, but it doesn't seem to be doing it for Tracey. Tracey is sending out signals too, but the lines are jammed. She goes in for rehab, then comes out clean, ready to start the same trip allover again. It's not that she doesn't want to get her life together. It's that she needs help, and she is asking for that help. No one can be sure Tracey will make it past 20. Statistics are not in her favor.
Sad stories, you are saying. But not unusual. Such stories do not even make the news anymore. We all have our problems and we try to do the best we can. There are places people can go for help, but they have to do it themselves. No one can do it for them. What you say is true, devastatingly true.
People today have problems, and society has set up stations where anyone with a desire to help himself can get the support and advice needed. There is no denying that. But one thing is also true. We cannot hear or read about the Malcoms, Irenes and Traceys without a twinge of sadness in our own hearts. Human nature is that way. We want to reach out, to do something, except we have our own problems. Moreover, what could we do, since we are not trained to help others, at least, not like the professionals. Are we our brother's keeper?
I have heard this many times. I myself felt helpless and inadequate on many occasions when faced with another's sorrow and pain. We all want to insulate ourselves, to pretend people like Malcom, Irene and Tracey exist only in the movies. But we know they are all around us, and they are all crying for help, in one way or another. We respect the professionals. We know they too are doing the best they can with the available resources of time and money. But they can't do it all.
What is that supposed to mean? Sure they can't do it all, but neither can you or I? If someone wants to kill himself, if someone wants to hurt himself or cut himself off from the rest of the world, there really isn't anything anyone can do. True. But what we are talking about are the signals that precede the disaster, the cut-off, the dizzying spin through tragedy after tragedy. People are screaming for help, more help. You and I can do something about it. We can at least help the people who are close to us, the ones we love, the ones who look to us for understanding and comfort. We can really be our brother's keeper!
They say our society is completely wrapped up in itself. No one wants to get involved. That may be true. But one thing remains constant from one society to another, and that is human nature. Human nature is fundamentally kind, generous, helpful, patient, receptive, heroic. We see this all the time, despite the failings of individuals. Human nature is a constant, a bed rock, a foundation.
If you truly want a better life for yourself and those you love, a good place to start is by helping other people, especially those you know and love, sensitizing yourself so you can not only receive another's cry for help, but are willing to extend yourself, to give of yourself so other needy persons can get back on the track before they do something inhuman to themselves, like Malcom, Irene or Tracey.
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Reviews for "God Helps Those Who Help: A Training Guide To Helping Others"
I love the Rverend's "heart & soul" philosophy. The true power of love, compassion, and positive contribution, back into society is MOST IMPORTANT! Person by person. One soul to another.
Rebecca K. Drnjevic~Author~Yeah Buts The Little Book Of Big Excuses
Writer Berkery's excerpt is highly readable and filled with excellent writing. Interesting read!
m j hollingshead reviews for ScribesWorld, BookDragon, TerryFic, others.
............. ;0) hope you will check my book list as well.
#1 International Best Seller,multiple award-winner, Deep Living with the Enneagram: Recovering Your True Nature, is like getting 3-books-in-one with a focus on what it means to live deeply.
In this book you’ll find:
*A radically compassionat
