Small deeds can change the world.

"Small deeds can change the world." (Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot, 116)

The chapter from which this quote comes is entitled "Trust LITTLE Deeds".  Lucado shares several examples where someone has done something small that grew into something bigger.  They didn't know that their simple act of kindness would become something bigger.  They simply did what they knew they were to do. 

You may have heard the expression "Pay It Forward" and you may have seen the movie of the same name.  The basic line is that someone does something kind for someone else, repaying someone else's kindness to them.

We can all do acts, deeds of kindness.  In the movie "Evan Almighty", they were referred to as "Acts of Random Kindness" or "ARK" for short. 

What does it require of us?  Our willingness to use who we are and what we have.  It may take some time and energy as well.  

In reading the chapter by Lucado, I learned several interesting stories. 

1--Pilot Bohn Fawkes sustained hits on the tanks of his B-17 in World War II, but the plane did not explode.  When the technicians opened up the missiles, they found them empty except for one that contained a note written in Czech that said: "This is all we can do for you now."  It appears that the assembly-line worker disarmed the bombs, left many of them empty, and was able to get a note into at least one of them. (Lucado, 115)

2--Operation Little Vittles was begun by another pilot in World War II, Gail Halvorsen.  It started when he handed gum to some children through a fence.  He began to drop gum to the kids and then gum and candy tied to handkerchief parachutes.  He told the children they would know it was him because he would wiggle his wings.  This earned him the nickname "Uncle Wiggly Wings". (Lucado, 111-112) [There has been a book written about this by Halvorsen himself: The Berlin Candy Bomber (2002)]

Both of these examples show a person doing what was in their sphere of influence to do.  What about me?  What about you?  What is in our sphere of influence to do?  What do we have at our disposal?  What small deed might we do for someone else?

Will what I do create a ripple effect of small deeds being done one to another?  I don't know.  I don't have control over that. All that I know is that I must do whatever it is I can do.

There are times when I can let someone go in front of me, whether in a line of traffic or in a line in the grocery store.  There are times when I can make a phone call, send a note or a card (or an e-mail).  There are times when I can go sit in at the radio station and learn to answer prayer line phones.  There are times when I can help the Spanish-speaking family understand what the recorded message said.  These are a few things that come to mind for me.  I'm sure there are many other small deeds that I can do, if I'll only pay better attention.

I'm going to look for the small deed opportunities and do them.

What about you?

Happy journeying!

~Debra

PS-- In preparing to teach the Lucado chapter in the absence of the teacher, I found some other resources I'd like to add to my blog. 

First, a website: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/.

Second, a quote from a Spanish musician:

“Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.”
                                                                    ~Pablo Casals (1876--1973)

If you need resources to get you started on WHAT you can do, check out the website.  In addition, there are some books available with great ideas.  There are even websites and books geared toward kids to get kids into action. 

Maybe you'll check out the website and post the acts/deeds of kindness that you do or that you observe.  Maybe you'll post them here on the comments.  Regardless, I hope you'll be motivated with some new ideas!

~dd