Basketball coach John Wooden said, “You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” I believe a powerful verse in the Bible that releases the blessing of God in your life is Proverbs 3:27, which says, “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.” I can’t tell you how many times it’s been a joy to help someone in this way. I love it when they ask, “Why did you do this?” and I’m humbled to say, “Because I can . . .”
Joy shared is joy doubled. You’re created to be a part of the solution. Helen Keller once said, “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”
Be an answer. Get in the way if someone you know is on their way down. Walk in when others are walking out. There are no unimportant jobs, no unimportant people, and no unimportant acts of kindness. If you haven’t got any kindness in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.
Be nice—you never know the good it will do or the bad it will prevent. Next time a sales clerk looks down her nose at you, remember the story of millionaire John Barrier and the Washington state bank that refused to validate his parking.
John Barrier had done business with Old National Bank (now U.S. Bank) in Spokane, Washington, for thirty years. He’d made his money buying and refurbishing old buildings, and he was wearing his usual shabby clothes one day in October 1988 when he left his pickup truck in a nearby parking lot while he paid a visit to his broker, then cashed a check at the bank. The bank teller, however, took one look at his grubby clothes and refused to stamp the parking bill.
He said, “If you have $1 in a bank or $1 million, I think they owe you the courtesy of stamping your parking ticket.” John Barrier withdrew all his money from the bank and took it to another bank down the street.
Your contribution is determined by the answers you give to the problems you face. According to Mike Murdock, “You’ll only be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create.” It’s always more blessed to give than to receive (see Acts 20:35).
Give of yourself to others and watch criticism, depression, and unhappiness leave your life. Critics are usually the most inactive of people. Walk in your neighbor’s shoes, sit in your boss’s chair, walk the path of your best friends. Be on the lookout for ways to be an answer.
How many happy selfish people do you know? You can make more friends in two months by helping other people than you can in two years by trying to get others to help you. “If God can get it through you, He will give it to you,” says Pastor E. V. Hill.
The Dead Sea is a dead sea because it continually receives and never gives.
Anonymous
Just one act of yours may be all it takes to turn the tide of another person’s life. Find the problems you’re an answer to.
What’s in the power of your hand to do?