It Really Didn’t Matter…

We should always be willing to help others and be quick to lend a helping no matter who the person is. That’s what Jesus meant by saying, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples; that you love one another even as I have loved you.”

If we want people to come to know the Lord, then we should spend more time encouraging them and not be critical or judgmental because they are not living according to our qualifications.

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The young people at Shively Christian Church were fiercely competitive with their neighbor Church, Shively Baptist, in all things.  They were also serious about their Christianity, faithfully attending the summer Bible camp led by the youth pastor.

One week, the Bible lesson was about Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, from John 13.  To make the servanthood lesson stick. Their pastor divided the kids into groups and told them to go out and find a practical way to be servants.

"I want you to be Jesus in the city for the next two hours," he said. "If Jesus were here, what would He do? Figure out how He would help people."

Two hours later the kids reconvened in the pastor's living room to report what they had done.

- One group had done two hours of yard work for an elderly man.

- Another group bought ice-cream treats and delivered them to several widows in the church.

- A third group visited a church member in the hospital and gave him a card.

- Another group went to a nursing home and sang Christmas carols, yes, carols in the middle of August. One elderly resident remarked that it was the warmest Christmas she could remember.

- But when the fifth group stood up and reported what they had done, everyone groaned.

This group had made its way to none other than their archrival, Shively Baptist, where they had asked the presiding pastor if he knew someone who needed help. The pastor sent them to the home of an elderly woman who needed yard work done. There, for two hours, the mowed grass, raked the yard and trimmed hedges.

When they were getting ready to leave, the woman called the group together and thanked them for their hard work.  "I don't know how I could get along without you," she told them.  “You kids, at Shively Baptist, are always coming to my rescue."

"Shively Baptist!" interrupted their pastor. "I sure hope you set her straight and told her you were from Shively Christian church."

“Why no, we didn't," the kids said.  "We didn't think it mattered."

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I wish more people had the same attitude as the kids in this story.  We should not look for credit when we do something good for someone else, but we should do that good deed as if we were doing it for the Lord.

There are many Christians in the world today that waste so much time arguing over their denomination, instead of investing that time and energy glorifying the Lord through their life.

I encourage you to not look for a reward when you do a good deed for someone else, but rather look to the Lord and know that He sees every sacrifice that you make on behalf of someone else and He will reward you in like manner, so never allow anyone to tell you that helping someone else is a waste of your time.

Remember:

Some of life’s greatest memories will not be what we did for ourselves, but what we did for others.

Stay Blessed!