Life is all about choices. Make enough good ones and your life can be productive and happy. Choose incorrectly and poorer results occur. One of the biggest choices each human being is regularly presented with is the choice to do good or ill. In my fourteenth essay, A Good Life, I wrote, “By reaching out, we grow within.” By doing good deeds on a regular basis we transcend ourselves and connect with the world. In so doing each person overcomes fear and becomes more fully human.
Being a human being is tough stuff. We don’t know where we came from. We don’t know why we are here. None of us can say for certain just where we are bound. On this blank tableau a person draws the lines of his life, connecting the dots which are the seconds, minutes, hours and days granted by Universal Spirit. It takes great courage to be a human being. It takes great heart to reach out to others who are drawing the lines of their own lives…connecting the dots. God can help guide each of us if we listen and act wisely, and from the heart.
Where is your heart? When you see injustice, suffering or pain, how do you react? Do you see these as opportunities to do good deeds and reduce the distress of other persons or creatures? Or do you react defensively and avoid involvement? It’s all about commitment and opportunities. How a person reacts to opportunities to perform good deeds is an excellent measure of character. Over time character determines destiny.
Let’s get down to cases. You’re walking down the street on an otherwise normal day. Perhaps you are on a shopping errand, your mind totally preoccupied with other matters. Suddenly a stranger approaches you and says, “Excuse me, my car battery is dead. Do you have a pair of jumper cables that I can borrow?” This is a common request, nothing too out of the ordinary, but it does require you to make a choice. Let’s assume that you have a pair of cables in the trunk of your car and you know how to use them. Do you break out of your comfortable, self-absorbed cocoon and help this motorist? Or do you mumble something under your breath and continue on you way, too afraid or busy to assist this person in need?
Another example of an opportunity to do good, more consequential perhaps, presents itself. You are watching television and a public service announcement declares an emergency need for blood donations. You know that you are physically able to give a pint of blood, but will you? Only five percent of Americans donate their blood for the other nine-five percent. Yes, it takes time, about an hour, and that needle does hurt a little. But it is an opportunity to save a life. It is a chance to make a difference - to make a positive choice to help others. Every day we write on the pages of the book of life. What will you write? What story shall you tell?
In her poem, Do It Anyway, Mother Teresa wrote, “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway…. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.” But our good deeds can be transformative, and they often serve to enrich the lives of others by the positive, unselfish example which they set. If enough people choose to make the right choices – to do the good deeds – our world will become a better place in which to live. This change begins in the heart of each person.
No government, business or religious institution can soften the human heart. The human heart is the province of God, his exclusive domain. God knows our hearts better than we do. He knew each of us from before the beginning of time. He is with each of us today, urging us to make the right choices when we see a child in need, a family member in distress, or a neighbor in danger. My spirit and the Lord’s spirit are one. When I see evil and confront it or witness pain and mitigate it, I affirm and strengthen this kinship. Doing good deeds waters the flowers of my soul and brightens the meadows of my heart. By choosing to perform one good deed a day I nourish my soul and enrich the lives of others.
Making a deliberate, long-term commitment to perform at least one good deed a day may have unintended consequences for you and others. This one choice alone can open new worlds to you. You will discover a whole new person inside you which was sleeping, but now is awake. In saying “yes” instead of “no” you will liberate yourself from your ego and unite with the world beyond yourself. In these often cold, cruel and uncaring times, a good deed is a profound statement of compassion. It can also be your declaration of independence from the mindless insensitivity and violence of our age. Your one act of kindness each day demonstrates your commitment to a holier, transcendent interpretation of life.
For those who are the beneficiaries of your daily good deed the impact can also be transformative. The parable of the Good Samaritan need not be a mere biblical reference; it can also come alive by giving heart and sustenance to those who benefit from our positive actions. Who has not experienced the kindness of strangers and been amazed and heartened by their generosity? We cannot fathom the true benefits which our good deeds do for others. That they help a fellow human being, animal or Mother Earth is knowledge and motivation enough. It is God working in us and through us, and God is good. Before choosing to perform a good deed, make sure to do it without regard for reward or reciprocity. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let it be between you and God alone, as Mother Teresa counseled. Consult your mind, but decide with your heart. Regard all life as being worthy of your good deeds for we are all God’s creatures who share this planet for but a day.
If you commit to performing one random act of kindness each day, you will also want to desist from harming anything or anyone. The act of kindness and refusal to do harm go hand in glove. When I drive my car it is most efficiently operated when I drive with one foot on either the accelerator or break pedal. Being human, too, I fully understand and accept the fact that I am a work in progress, and am fallible. This applies to spiritual matters especially. Change does not come overnight, or without struggle and setback. There is no greater challenge than that of evolving into a better and fuller human being. Like performing one good deed each day, however, the journey of inner growth is its own reward. The time to begin that crusade is now.
Being a human being is tough stuff. We don’t know where we came from. We don’t know why we are here. None of us can say for certain just where we are bound. On this blank tableau a person draws the lines of his life, connecting the dots which are the seconds, minutes, hours and days granted by Universal Spirit. It takes great courage to be a human being. It takes great heart to reach out to others who are drawing the lines of their own lives…connecting the dots. God can help guide each of us if we listen and act wisely, and from the heart.
Where is your heart? When you see injustice, suffering or pain, how do you react? Do you see these as opportunities to do good deeds and reduce the distress of other persons or creatures? Or do you react defensively and avoid involvement? It’s all about commitment and opportunities. How a person reacts to opportunities to perform good deeds is an excellent measure of character. Over time character determines destiny.
Let’s get down to cases. You’re walking down the street on an otherwise normal day. Perhaps you are on a shopping errand, your mind totally preoccupied with other matters. Suddenly a stranger approaches you and says, “Excuse me, my car battery is dead. Do you have a pair of jumper cables that I can borrow?” This is a common request, nothing too out of the ordinary, but it does require you to make a choice. Let’s assume that you have a pair of cables in the trunk of your car and you know how to use them. Do you break out of your comfortable, self-absorbed cocoon and help this motorist? Or do you mumble something under your breath and continue on you way, too afraid or busy to assist this person in need?
Another example of an opportunity to do good, more consequential perhaps, presents itself. You are watching television and a public service announcement declares an emergency need for blood donations. You know that you are physically able to give a pint of blood, but will you? Only five percent of Americans donate their blood for the other nine-five percent. Yes, it takes time, about an hour, and that needle does hurt a little. But it is an opportunity to save a life. It is a chance to make a difference - to make a positive choice to help others. Every day we write on the pages of the book of life. What will you write? What story shall you tell?
In her poem, Do It Anyway, Mother Teresa wrote, “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway…. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.” But our good deeds can be transformative, and they often serve to enrich the lives of others by the positive, unselfish example which they set. If enough people choose to make the right choices – to do the good deeds – our world will become a better place in which to live. This change begins in the heart of each person.
No government, business or religious institution can soften the human heart. The human heart is the province of God, his exclusive domain. God knows our hearts better than we do. He knew each of us from before the beginning of time. He is with each of us today, urging us to make the right choices when we see a child in need, a family member in distress, or a neighbor in danger. My spirit and the Lord’s spirit are one. When I see evil and confront it or witness pain and mitigate it, I affirm and strengthen this kinship. Doing good deeds waters the flowers of my soul and brightens the meadows of my heart. By choosing to perform one good deed a day I nourish my soul and enrich the lives of others.
Making a deliberate, long-term commitment to perform at least one good deed a day may have unintended consequences for you and others. This one choice alone can open new worlds to you. You will discover a whole new person inside you which was sleeping, but now is awake. In saying “yes” instead of “no” you will liberate yourself from your ego and unite with the world beyond yourself. In these often cold, cruel and uncaring times, a good deed is a profound statement of compassion. It can also be your declaration of independence from the mindless insensitivity and violence of our age. Your one act of kindness each day demonstrates your commitment to a holier, transcendent interpretation of life.
For those who are the beneficiaries of your daily good deed the impact can also be transformative. The parable of the Good Samaritan need not be a mere biblical reference; it can also come alive by giving heart and sustenance to those who benefit from our positive actions. Who has not experienced the kindness of strangers and been amazed and heartened by their generosity? We cannot fathom the true benefits which our good deeds do for others. That they help a fellow human being, animal or Mother Earth is knowledge and motivation enough. It is God working in us and through us, and God is good. Before choosing to perform a good deed, make sure to do it without regard for reward or reciprocity. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let it be between you and God alone, as Mother Teresa counseled. Consult your mind, but decide with your heart. Regard all life as being worthy of your good deeds for we are all God’s creatures who share this planet for but a day.
If you commit to performing one random act of kindness each day, you will also want to desist from harming anything or anyone. The act of kindness and refusal to do harm go hand in glove. When I drive my car it is most efficiently operated when I drive with one foot on either the accelerator or break pedal. Being human, too, I fully understand and accept the fact that I am a work in progress, and am fallible. This applies to spiritual matters especially. Change does not come overnight, or without struggle and setback. There is no greater challenge than that of evolving into a better and fuller human being. Like performing one good deed each day, however, the journey of inner growth is its own reward. The time to begin that crusade is now.
Art Apruzzese
San Luis Obispo, California
March 20, 2009
1 comment:
Very well said. This is becoming a very cruel world. It's just another prophesy being fulfilled. In the last days people will care about nobody but themselves. There will be no respect for the law. How true. Men are killing their wives, drugs are out of control, and the list goes on.
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