Sumpin' Fo' Nuthin'

Did you ever receive something that you didn't really deserve, or expect? What a great feeling. I remember this time when my nana (grandma for you gringos out there) won a bike at her local bank. I was about 11 years old, but I can still remember how excited I was. She pulled up to our house just like she had done a dozen times before. But then like magic, she pulled a bike out of her trunk (cars were much bigger then and so were their trunks). It wasn't my birthday, I did nothing to deserve it, but one random Saturday afternoon, this bratty little kid received a gift. To this day, there's nothing like that new bike smell. The combination of fresh rubber, new leather and undefiled chain lubricant still takes me back.

I'm sure all of us have taken bagels to the office, or paid someone's toll, or stopped to help a stranger, or bought a meal for someone who couldn't, but I'm talking about day-to-day living. I'm talking about thinking outward instead of inward. I'm talking about doing the unexpected.

I love the people in my life. I have dozens of stories where I've seen these people offer themselves privately and publicly. They've given of their time and resources, wanting and expecting nothing in return. In fact, they would be quite embarrassed if I mentioned them by name. I love the people in my life. Did I say that already?

There's a group from New York called Improv Everywhere. They do some pretty funny and random stuff. I thought this one was kinda cool. I definitely wanna try something like this next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nbkbss7i5s


Making someone's day sometimes doesn't take much. Sometimes it takes planning, sometimes it doesn't. Check out this quick Gandhi story:

One day, Gandhi was running to get on a train, and as he jumped up, his shoe slipped off his foot. Though he tried to grab it, he ended up watching helplessly as it fell to the tracks. Quickly, he grabbed the other one off his foot and threw it back down the tracks towards the first rapidly disappearing shoe.

People who saw this thought perhaps Gandhi had taken leave of his senses. His response to their mystified expressions was: “At least now if a poor person finds his way across my shoe he will soon come across its mate and end up with a good pair of shoes.


All I'm saying is begin with something easy. Offer to buy someone's lunch, make your hunnie dinner, volunteer to babysit, help a neighbor with their _____ (fill in the blank), extend kindness to that certain person that drives you nuts. Each one of us knows someone who could use a little . . . . . something.

If we start small, before long, in time, with God's help, we will become better people, we will become better lovers of those around us, we will become more like Jesus.

A Fun Favorite

I sometimes read blogs while eating my lunch.

This is one of my favorites . . . .

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.


btw: his other 2 sites are pretty cool also.