Week Forty-Nine, 2018
“JOHN ANDERSON”
By John Grant
Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Luke 6:38
Grace was an elderly lady driving alone at night on a rural road, She felt uneasy. Suddenly she pulled over with a flat tire and felt helpless. A truck pulled in behind her and a big man stepped out and knocked on her window. Even though he asked her to lower her window, she was very scared.
He told her his name was John Anderson and he wanted to change her tire. Feeling somewhat relieved, she told him to go ahead. When he was finished he came back to her window and she asked how much she owed him. He said nothing as it was an act of kindness. Then he said to her that when she next saw someone in need to help them.
Grace drove away and stopped at an all-night diner, where she was approached by a somewhat over pregnant server named Judy, who politely served her. When Judy brought her the check, Grace handed Judy a one hundred dollar bill and told her to keep the change. When Grace left, Judy proceeded to clean the table, she found four more one hundred dollar bills under a napkin. Judy felt so blessed as she and her husband lacked the money to pay for the delivery and now they had the money.
Judy got off work at midnight and went home to find her husband already asleep in bed. As Judy climbed into their bed, she woke her husband and shared the good news with him. They both felt blessed.
There’s something Biblical about passing on blessings. In Luke it says that we are to give and it will come back to you. We are told to help and bless others, even at our own cost. John blessed Grace, who blessed Judy.
We have heard the quote that says “what goes around comes around comes around”. Too often that used to describe what happened when we do bad things. The Bible says it is what happens when we live a life of generosity and blessing others.
We should focus on how we can bless others. It will always come back, perhaps not to us, but to someone, as we focus on giving rather than receiving. That’s what John and Grace did.
But now the rest of the story. The husband who Judy shared her good news was none other than John Anderson.
SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
A new Harvard study investigated the health and mental health of children and teenagers who were raised with religious or spiritual practices. What they found was fascinating.
Those who attended religious services at least once a week as children or teens were about 18 percent more likely to report being happier in their twenties than those who never attended services. They were almost 30 percent more likely to do volunteer work and 33 percent less likely to use drugs in their twenties.
In addition, people who prayed and meditated individually on a daily basis had more life satisfaction, were better able to process emotions, and were more forgiving. They were less likely to have sex at an earlier age and to have a sexually transmitted disease.
The Forbes article reporting on the study concludes: “Some of the fundamental habits that humans have been doing for eons (praying, meditating) might actually have a lot more value than we tend to think.”
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Ken Whitten on giving:
1. The Greatest Givers do not Necessarily Give the Greatest Gifts.
2. Don’t Have to be Rich to be Generous
3. Don’t Have to Have a Lot to Give
4. Don’t Have to Have a Lot to Give a Lot.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
Virginia Satyr says that most people prefer the certainty of misery than the misery of uncertainty. We’d rather head back to Egypt than learn to live as healthy people.
The woman came from a man’s rib. Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected and next to the heart to be loved.”
Focus on the Right not the Wrong.
Eyes that look are common; eyes that see are rare,” wrote J. Oswald Sanders in his book Spiritual Leadership.
©2018 John Grant | Florida State Senator (Ret.)