So even the news is tired of the news.Tired of economic misery and misbehavior. Tired of reading the words “more layoffs” off the teleprompter. Tired of reporting yet another economic scandal.
NBC Nightly News has now turned its once weekly exposé, “Making a Difference” into a nightly feature with news anchor Brian Williams earlier this week looking dead into the camera and saying, “Please keep sending us your stories of kindness in these uncertain economic times”.
Oprah Winfrey seems to have had enough too as she dedicated an entire show and a large part of her website to “Heroes in Hard Times” which focused on peoples’ acts of kindness both big and small. Other news outlets are following suit, just looking for something uplifting to report. Anything. A cat battling an oscillating fan. Sure, we’ll report that.
The one similarity I see in all these stories (the cat one excluded) is that the people doing the acts of generosity simply used what they had to help others. Their time. Their talents. The roadside motel they just bought, the unused church gym or, in one case, the equity in a dump truck to help a total stranger buy back her foreclosed home.
In every case, every single one, the “hero” said they didn’t feel like a “hero”. They were just doing what needed to be done. The laid off construction worker donating her time to tutor at an after-school program. The unemployed dancer teaching inner-city kids ballet. The lady who calls area hotels asking for old bedding they would otherwise just throw away she now collects and donates to area homeless shelters.
Some see it as an upspring, an almost a new ideal in hometown America. But in the Bible it can be clearly seen, time and time again. Acts of greatness done for the greater good. Simply because they needed to be done.
Take David for example. He defeated Goliath with the tools he already knew how to use for the good of others. He had emerged extremely skilled with his sling after years of being a shepherd. And note that while King Saul, the Israelite leader and the tallest of all the Isrealites, was afraid to face Goliath, David sprang at the chance to go after the Philistine.
Why? Because – and this is important – while all the other Israelites saw Goliath as a giant, David saw him simply as a mortal man defying God. And David, knowing God had been preparing him for this very day, shunned the need to use the king’s armor or brandish a sword. There he went. Alone. No frills. Nothing fancy. Doing something he‘d done a thousand times before. He just picked up his all-too-familiar sling and kept one thing in mind: Hit the mark and this will all be over.
The last words Goliath heard were, “...it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” Seconds later he lay there, dead, as his army fled.
And that is what I want you to know, God is training you, or has trained you, with gifts and experiences so you yourself can play the role of hero for His greater good in the life of someone else. Ok, sure, maybe you slay the giant. Or maybe you pay for a struggling mom’s tank of gas. Maybe you donate your yard sale earnings to charity. Maybe you go visit folks in a nursing home. Maybe you...got another idea? Good. Go for it.
Whatever the case, I encourage you to go out there and do it - and do it now. Remember, nothing flashy or fancy. Nothing that takes a committee or “group approval” to make happen. Because simple things can lead to God-sized results. A lady gets her house back. A diabetic gets the treatment he needs to survive. A single mom gets fresh bedding for her kids. And on and on.
Heroes? Maybe not. God’s fingerprints? Absolutely.
