Use What You Got

On Being Deliberate Do-Gooders

My neighbor Bob is amazing! I believe he’s still mentally living in an era where neighbors helped one another. He cannot see you outside working without rushing over—often with better tools—to ask if he can help. Last summer, he rented a stump grinder and asked the entire neighborhood if he could remove the stumps from their yards. The previous Fall, I couldn’t blow leaves without him popping up with the most potent and efficient leaf blower I’d ever seen to help me finish. And today, as we were buried in the worst snowfall in the last 20 years, Bob’s driveway was cleared before everyone else’s—I think he was catching the snowflakes before they could hit the ground. I saw him going around asking neighbors if they needed help digging out.

Bob is a great guy—a classic neighbor. He is our live-action version of Bob the Builder!

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on good deeds. I’m a sucker for do-gooders. I love those YouTube videos where people surprise others by paying rent, buying groceries, covering medical bills, etc. They inspire me so much. Indeed, on my life-goals list, I’ve written, “Give away $1,000,000 at once.” I daydream about calling the mortgage companies of friends and family, paying off the balances, funding projects, helping build infrastructure in Nigeria, and becoming a benefactor for starving artists…

I will do so one day, God willing. But Bob reminds me that we don’t need to wait until our good deeds make a huge splash to start. It’s better to seed the world with small acts of goodness as often as possible.

As the ever-quotable Helen Keller once said: “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

As usual, Jesus exemplified this the best. In an often overlooked passage, it says of him:

You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. — Acts 10:37-38

It’s easy to marvel at Jesus’s benevolent deeds, especially when they involve healed people, resurrected people, people whose sight has been restored, etc. However, the simple lesson is that Jesus used what he had. He deliberately did good because he was anointed with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. His followers should do the same.

We may not (yet) be able to heal the sick or raise the dead, but we can do something with what we’ve been given. We can “accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” And as children of God, we’ve each been entrusted with a lot. Recall that even the servant who “only” received one talent ended up with an abundant amount he could’ve used in his master's service. All that’s left is for us to understand what we’ve been entrusted with and be deliberate in searching for opportunities to do good.

Of course, we cannot leave out the necessity of acting in the name of Jesus. Something magical happens when we use what we have while acting in his name. Need I call the young boy with five loaves and two fish to testify to what God can do with our few when we offer it to him? Everyone was thinking what Andrew voiced when he said, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9)

We all know the answer to that question.

My dad used to say, “Our natural, combined with God’s super, makes a supernatural outcome.” The young lad would agree.

So, this has become something of a New Year’s resolution for me: to use what I have and be a deliberate do-gooder. If you’ve been waiting for a moment to make a big impact, join me in starting small. Determine how many good deeds you’d like to do daily, and be prayerful and watchful for opportunities. Then serve joyfully!

You may be very sure that if your sincere intent is to glorify God and bless others in your efforts, and you are not motivated by unloving attitudes, you will see the hand of God move with you as you expectantly do your work. Your part is simply to expect it, watch for it, give thanks as you see it, and, on the basis of your experience, encourage others to do the same. — Dallas Willard, The Great Omission

The world needs deliberate goodness—more simple, meaningful, timely, and thoughtful deeds that reveal God’s glory.

Jesus said:

“Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Join me! Use what you have and trust that God will be glorified through your deeds.