None of us can help everyone, but each of us can help someone near us. It may be only a smile, an encouraging word, a shoulder to cry on, or a hug to motivate them.
Of course, sometimes it takes more. Figuratively speaking, it might require a swift kick in the behind or a warning of what the future could hold if attitudes and actions aren’t changed.
However, we need to be honest in our assessments. Remember, every person you see today is someone God loves. Doesn’t that presume that people should see in us a love expressed through our deeds and interactions with others? The essence of God’s kingdom is unselfish love. When God’s love is present, it results in us helping others. A famous story of neighbourliness from olden days will help me explain the good results you can receive from helping others.
The award-winning corn
Once there was a farmer who grew award winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the farming awards event where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours.
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“The winds pick up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn,” the farmer said.
The connectedness of life
The farmer was very much aware of the connecterdness of life. His corn cannot improve unless that of others also improves.
So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbours to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn we must help our neighbour grow good corn.
Thought for the week
There is a certain gratification in wordly accomplishments, but it doesn’t bring the satisfaction and fulfilment we crave in our hearts. As your thought for the week, remember that when you become a giver instead of a taker, a helper instead of a receiver, you will find comfort, contentment and joy in your living.
