I have never thought to much about how “helping” has such an unequal aspect to it.  I say, “how can I help you” all the time, like I have the wherewithal to fix something or someone.  But it goes even deeper.  Even if I have a mastery of something and my effort could actually change it or fix something, my approach to it is so different if I am doing it in a servant stance.  The difference between the two is very powerful.  While it may look the same to others, my interior experience is very different.  In her book, In the Service of Life, Rachel Naomi Ramen notes that “Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred.”  The energy of helping sees life as a weakness and to fix what is broken.  In serving, my energy is different.  I am connected to everything and everything is part of a whole.  It is also one of the foundational principles of BeFriender Ministry; “Caring not curing.”  I wonder how different or world would be if instead of saying, “how can I help you,” we might offer, “how can I serve you?”