Help One Person Today
"You give them something to eat." -- Luke 9:13a, Mark 6:37a, Matthew 14:16b
I love that this comment is in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Most of us know the story, which is also found in John. Jesus was preaching in a remote area when the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd away. It was getting late and the people needed food. Jesus told the disciples to feed the people themselves. Mark recorded their reply.
"They said to him, 'That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?'" -- Mark 6:37b
Are we so different today? We always want someone else to do it. We can't afford to give. We don't have time to volunteer. We can't be bothered with a phone call or an extra guest at dinner or driving someone to a doctor's appointment. It's not our responsibility. It's their fault if they don't have anyone to help them. I could go on and on.
I received a letter yesterday from Covenant Hospice. It was a solicitation for money for the Sam Goldenberg Patient & Family Support Fund. The money is used to pay electric bills, buy groceries, help with burial costs and other things for families who are losing a loved one. Sam Goldenberg's widow Joyce wrote that her husband's life was changed when he saw a young boy walking to school in bare feet. The child didn't have any shoes. What he did have was shards of glass in one foot. Her husband didn't look the other way. He helped the boy and started giving away shoes to underprivileged kids. When he died last year, she started this fund to continue his work.
I'm not suggesting you write a check, though that would be okay. Nor am I suggesting that you go out and buy a bunch of shoes and donate them to children, though that would be okay too. The point here is that Sam Goldenberg saw a child who needed help and he helped him. One child. Sure, it grew into something more. But it started with one child. One gift. One man who reached out instead of turning away. Imagine what would happen if we all did that one thing for someone else.
HIS Radio 94.3 has a program titled Drive-Thru Difference. Actually, several radio stations is different areas have this program. It encourages people to pay for the food order of the people in the car behind them at the drive-thru restaurant. They have a note you can print out and give to the cashier to pass on to the people you are paying for. It's just a little way to show someone a kindness. It could be groceries or gas or anything really. It's one of those pass-along moments. Kindness begets kindness.
Jesus didn't send the crowd away that day. Instead, he took five loaves of bread and two fish and used it to feed 5,000 men plus women and children. Yeah, I know. He's Jesus. He can do anything. But, see, here's the thing: Jesus lives inside those who believe in Him. He told us to ask Him for help whenever we wanted. So why don't we?
I think sometimes we get so caught up in the big picture that we get overwhelmed. We can't end hunger so we don't feed that one person one meal. We can't give to every worthy cause so we don't give to any. We forget that great things come one step at a time. Or maybe I should say, one prayer at a time. Jesus never expected us to do it alone. He just expected us to take the first step.
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