A few months ago, a friend of mine was struggling. Some very hard things had happened recently. In their wake, she was left desolate and disheartened and fearful of the next shoe dropping. One cold and rainy morning, in the midst of this desolation, she went to the drive-through at Duncan Donuts for coffee. When she got to the payment window, the lady said, “The person in front of you in line already paid.” Then my friend paid for the person behind her, and she drove away. Later, she told me, “Something good happened to me this morning. It made me feel so good. I still feel good. And all for two dollars.”
I wonder what it would be like to spend today looking for every small chance to do something good. Maybe I can do a chore so that someone else won’t have to do it. Maybe I can pick up some trash from the roadside so that someone else won’t have to look at it. Maybe I can look for the good in someone and then tell him what I see. Maybe I can smile at someone who doesn’t invite a smile. Maybe I can speak kindly to someone who doesn’t invite kindness. Maybe, by nightfall, I will be a little more convinced that giving really is more blessed—a far happier thing—than receiving.
“Jesus Himself said, ‘It is more blessed and happier to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
“Whenever your life touches another life, there you have opportunity. . . . To give a close, sympathetic attention to every human being we touch; to try to get some sense of how he feels, what he is, what he needs; to make in some degree his interest our own. . . .” George S. Merriam