Exercising Goodness to Others

A lot of us would probably do good if we were asked to or if there was something to gain by doing so. How many times have you known that someone needed help and you acted without being asked?  What about when someone asked you for help? Did you ask them to come back letter because you wanted them to find someone else to help? Scripture is very emphatic on the issue of helping or exercising kindness to others particularly those in need. The book of Proverbs teaches that “he who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” Proverbs 19:17.

If society functioned the way God intended it to we would have few people living in the kind of misery that we witness today. Greed and lack of love has infiltrated our thinking and the saying that it is a world where only the fittest survive becomes true.  In the book of Deuteronomy God told the children of Israel that, “you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs—. For the poor will never cease from the land, therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your hand,’” Deuteronomy 15:8, 11.

Many people argue that the poor are so because of some fault of their own. This kind of reasoning makes it easy to close their heart and hands to the needy. The fact of the matter is that we live in unjust societies and even the so called equality is a myth. There are many sneaky ways that are used to discriminate and so though we may claim that in paper all have the same opportunities this is not always true. This is why God said that “there will always be poor among you” for He knows the mind and ways of humans.  Others fall in need because of sickness or poor economic situation like the current situation we are in today. God expects us to respond to the needy regardless of whom or what was responsible for their condition.  

Recently I read of a wonderful story of an act of kindness as narrated by the son whose father had done the good deed. The boy had gone to the circus with his father. Ahead of them in line was a man and his wife together with eight children. The eldest child was probably about 12 years. The cashier told the man the total amount due from him for the family and the wife was the first to react in shock. The man asked the cashier again in a soft voice what the amount was and you could tell his distress to learn that he could not afford it and would have to disappoint his children. The boy telling the story said he saw his father drop a $20 bill and then pick it up and tapped the man with the 12 children saying, “Sir, I think you dropped this”. The man turned a round and with tears in his eyes thanked the boy’s dad as he realized what he was doing.