Opportunities to be a Blessing
I want to tell you about three of the opportunities that I’ve experienced over the last decade and what a blessing they were for me. I’m not sharing these to brag. In fact, just the opposite. These were just a couple that the Spirit moved me to take the presented moments to be a blessing. I’m sure there were many more potential opportunities to be blessed that I either ignored, didn’t see or just turned away. I am going to share these three, to prayerfully motivate you to look for the same kind of opportunities. Equally, I pray that I have the fortitude to address them when they arise.
The first one was just a couple of weeks ago. The groomer that we take our little dog to has a strict 1/2 hour slot when you can drop off the dog. If you miss that window, you have to reschedule (which they are scheduling several months out). Anyway, I had just dropped off our little dog and was walking out to my vehicle when a women was getting her walker out of her car. I noticed that her walker was missing one of the slide pieces (you’ve seen walkers with tennis balls or little skis to help the walker slide across the ground). I said hello and commented about the missing ski (I think that is what was missing on one side). She told me that she had been to a doctor appointment the day prior and it had caught on something when she tried to put it in her backseat and she was afraid that it fell off in the doctor’s parking lot. For whatever reason, I walked around her car to the drivers side and saw it laying on the ground. She must have dropped it in her backseat and when she pulled her walker out at the groomer, it fell out. I bent over and installed it on her walker. She expressed her gratitude and told me that I had made her day.
The second one was a couple of months ago (in fact it was the day before HHCC’s Annual Harvest festival). I was leaving the grocery store and walking to my vehicle when an SUV drove up and the driver made a comment something like “It’s a wonderful day in the Lord.” I agreed and he went on to tell me that he, his wife and their children (all in the SUV) where on their way to Dallas or Wichita and needed some help with gas money. I told them I didn’t have any cash on me, but I found a different way to assist them. My wife later told me that I had likely had a sucker look, but it must have pleased the Lord, because I felt oddly comfortable and pleased with my decision.
The third one was over 10 years ago. I had left a doctor’s appointment with a prescription and was at the pharmacy waiting for it to be filled. A mature gentleman came in and was trying to refill his prescriptions. Somehow, he owed the pharmacy close to $50 and they wouldn’t refill his prescriptions until he paid the balance off. He left and I felt compelled to ask if anyone could pay his balance. I paid it and they said that they’d contact him to come in and get his medicine. Unlike the other two, he likely didn’t remember a man sitting in the waiting chair a few feet from the counter and I asked the pharmacy not to tell him who paid his balance. However, I felt more blessed with this anonymous act than the other two.
We all get hit up all the time from various private charities and in fact pay a hefty tax every year to accomplish like acts of support. But it’s not the same. I may be okay with paying taxes knowing that they support schools but I can’t say I’ve ever felt blessed by paying them. Similarly, any time I’ve made a contribution to a charity, I’ve felt maybe good about it but never blessed.
In my understanding of what it says in the Bible is that we have an obligation to take care of our fellow brothers and sisters. When we do this through a charity or a government agency, we miss some of that personal connection that elevates that opportunity to a blessing.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” - 1 John 3:16-18 ESV
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” - Galatians 6:9-10 ESV
“Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” - Proverbs 21:13 ESV
In my opinion, I left each of these three opportunities feeling blessed maybe even more so than the beneficiary in each situation. As I said at the beginning of this message, I pray that I get the opportunity and fortitude to give a little of my time, treasure and talent to these types of situations when they arise.
