Many said how wonderful they felt in knowing they were not just standing by, but being useful. Probably the best service I provided for them was giving them the opportunity to give, by acknowledging my weakness and asking for help. When truly in need, acknowledge your dependence our interdependence and let people be of service to you. It will help them and you to a more enriching life. If the point of service is to make the world a better place in which to live, then somebody needs to be making the blankets with which Mother Teresa comforts the sick.
Somebody needs to build the hospitals in which our nurses and doctors work.
Someone must mine the iron to make the steel to forge the plow to grow the food before it can be donated to the local food bank. A modern community especially a global community has many wants and desires. Not all of them can be fulfilled by charitable works, nor even works of obvious service. An artist fulfils our need for beauty and our need to perceive ourselves in different ways. A skilled actuary helps to provide cost-effective insurance, allowing the community to lower its collective exposure to risk.