A Little Stone in a Pond
Luke 6:30,31 Give to everyone who asks you for something. When someone takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back. Do for others what you want them to do for you.
On the surface of things, being nice to people who don’t deserve it … say, to someone who stole something from you … doesn’t seem to be such a clever thing to do. But in God’s economy, it’s one of the wisest investments we can ever make.
There used to be a great little restaurant near where I live. It wasn’t perfect, but hey, what in this world is? It turns out though that management wasn’t being very nice to those “imperfect” waiters, the very ones who used to be nice to clients like me.
Well, that set off a chain reaction. The waiters left and business dropped off sharply. Isn’t it funny; be kind to the staff and in turn, they’ll be kind to the clients. It’s like throwing a little stone into the pond and seeing the ripples that it makes.
I mean, imagine if just you and I went around being kind to more people – and not just the people who’re nice to us, but the imperfect ones too. Jesus put it like this:
Luke 6:30,31 Give to everyone who asks you for something. When someone takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back. Do for others what you want them to do for you.
Being kind to someone who steals something from you doesn’t sound all that smart. And yet, what if we cared more about the person who’s done wrong than the thing that they took?
How different would this world be if God were able to unleash the power of that sort of love – His love – through the likes of you and me into the lives of those who truly need it? Imagine the ripples of transforming love going out into your friends, then their friends, across a city, a nation, around the globe.
When someone takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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