Anxious? Depressed? Grab a Hammer and Focus!

What do you do when faced with a problem that’s not in your power to fix? When all you can do is wait. When it keeps you up at night. When every hour that ticks by without a solution makes the problem worse. What do you do? I’ve faced this kind of problem over the last week. Prayer and faith have carried me, for sure, this week, but this past Saturday, it was something else that took my focus off my problem. On Saturday, my church small group spent the morning helping to build a house for Habitat for Humanity.

Now, construction is not even remotely in my wheelhouse, and the eight of us in my small group are definitely not “spring chickens.” In fact, a twenty-year-old would likely classify some of us (me included) as “elderly.” All of us were a bit concerned about the physicality of what we were undertaking and whether we could handle the jobs we might be called on to do. But a couple of years ago, we made a decision to be more involved in serving in the community, and so we found ourselves at a cold, muddy build site at 8:30 on Saturday morning.

The day began with a briefing by the Habitat coordinator and the collection of our release forms. She explained that the house we were going to be working on was for a single mom with a five-year-old little boy. The mom wasn’t there that day, but she does come out to work on the house every Tuesday, swinging a hammer or operating a circular saw alongside the volunteers. Habitat homeowners contribute anywhere from 300 to 500 hours of sweat equity, either working on their own homes or someone else’s Habitat home. I knew the homeowners were required to work on the construction, but I didn’t know they also paid for their new homes. A common myth about Habitat for Humanity is that they “give away” homes to people who need them. The fact is, in most cases, the homeowner makes a $500 down payment and then is given a 30-year interest-free mortgage. Because the home is built using donations of land, materials, and labor, the mortgage payments are kept affordable, but it’s not free.

After the coordinator’s briefing, we were given a safety briefing from an AmeriCorps volunteer who works with Habitat. Then the construction foreman gave us a briefing on what we would be doing that day. Turns out, this house was at the point of having the sub roofing installed. Uh-oh. On the roof? Me?

Following the briefings, we sorted through hard hats, gloves, and safety goggles to find just the right accessories for each of us. Then it was off to get started. I was nervous as we trudged through the mud to the house. First up was assembling the scaffolding that would hold us while installing a safety rail along the edge of the roofline. Once we got started, the work was less intimidating, but it was definitely physical labor! Climbing, sawing, nailing, hauling—not what any of us do in our day jobs.

Once the safety rail was installed, half of us climbed up to the roof, and the other half became the “ground crew.” I decided it was best to keep my feet firmly on the ground, so I sent Joe up to the roof. The ground crew cut the sub roofing material, hauled it to the house, and lifted it up to the crew on the roof through the rafters inside the house. The crew on the roof positioned each piece and nailed it into place. There was a whole lot of hammering going on.

Most of the sub roofing pieces were 4 feet by 8 feet and required two or three of us to haul and lift through the rafters, but others needed to be cut to size. After one of our guys cut a piece to 4 feet by 66 inches, I easily lifted it and hauled it to the house myself. I forgot about the lifting it up through the rafters to the roofing crew, however. Since this piece of board was shorter than the usual pieces, I could barely reach the hands of the guy reaching down to grasp it, and it was heavy. Long story short, it slipped and came crashing down from the roof above my head. Screaming with fright I, fortunately, jumped back enough where it only caught me in the hands instead of the head! I wasn’t seriously hurt, but it shook me up enough that I had to sit down for a while. I got to come home with a few bruises to show off.

We worked hard for four hours and were already discussing our various aches and pains while cleaning up the site. If you’ve ever volunteered though, you know what a blessing it is to have the privilege to serve someone who needs a helping hand. I’ve volunteered and served in other ways before, but this was the first time I can remember where serving coincided with battling an anxiety-producing problem of my own. I discovered what a gift it was to have my focus turned to something meaningful outside of myself and my issue. It lightened the burden of my problem, a lot.

I usually shy away from giving advice, but I’m confident in this advice. Saturday proved it to me. The next time you’re struggling with an anxiety-producing problem, find a way to serve someone else. It will lighten the burden of what you’re facing in your own life. No matter how much you give of yourself—time, talents, whatever—the return on investment will always be greater than what you’ve given away. I promise.