Random Acts of Kindness
Posted in Love your neighbor, Misti's Posts 0 comments
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
In the wake of recent tragedies in the United States, a trend has risen which we have seen before. It has come in many different incarnations over the years, but it all comes down to the same concept: do something unexpected and beneficial for someone you've never met. A Random Act of Kindness.
In 2000, Warner Brothers made a film starring Hayley Joel Osment called "Pay It Forward". It was the story of an elementary school boy who decided to start a Random Act of Kindness movement after receiving a challenging assignment from his teacher (played by Kevin Spacey) to change the world. It was a wonderful movie with a heart-wrenching ending, but the "pay it forward movement" has been something that has stayed in the back of my mind since then.
How would our world change if we put together the command from Jesus above with the 'pay it forward movement"? Jesus essentially tells His disciples to pay forward the message of salvation in Jerusalem (their hometown), all Judea (their own country), Samaria (the neighboring nation) and to the end of the earth. What if He meant that literally? How would our view of this verse shift if we took it literally?
Each and every Christian is a missionary. From the time you say yes to God, you are His disciple AND His witness. The best way we witness the goodness, the otherness, of God is to wear external evidence that He has changed our hearts. The best place to do that is our own hometown-the place people know us for who we have been. If every one of us reached out in our own church, a few hundred people would be changed. As those few hundred reached out into the community at large, a few thousand people would be changed. And so on, and so on...
This clip from Pay It Forward really puts the whole thing in perspective. Hope you enjoy!
In the wake of recent tragedies in the United States, a trend has risen which we have seen before. It has come in many different incarnations over the years, but it all comes down to the same concept: do something unexpected and beneficial for someone you've never met. A Random Act of Kindness.
In 2000, Warner Brothers made a film starring Hayley Joel Osment called "Pay It Forward". It was the story of an elementary school boy who decided to start a Random Act of Kindness movement after receiving a challenging assignment from his teacher (played by Kevin Spacey) to change the world. It was a wonderful movie with a heart-wrenching ending, but the "pay it forward movement" has been something that has stayed in the back of my mind since then.
How would our world change if we put together the command from Jesus above with the 'pay it forward movement"? Jesus essentially tells His disciples to pay forward the message of salvation in Jerusalem (their hometown), all Judea (their own country), Samaria (the neighboring nation) and to the end of the earth. What if He meant that literally? How would our view of this verse shift if we took it literally?
Each and every Christian is a missionary. From the time you say yes to God, you are His disciple AND His witness. The best way we witness the goodness, the otherness, of God is to wear external evidence that He has changed our hearts. The best place to do that is our own hometown-the place people know us for who we have been. If every one of us reached out in our own church, a few hundred people would be changed. As those few hundred reached out into the community at large, a few thousand people would be changed. And so on, and so on...
This clip from Pay It Forward really puts the whole thing in perspective. Hope you enjoy!
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