Do All The Good You Can

Some few years ago, I read this wonder write-up in a small column written by Steve Goodier. I don't know which journal was it, but I had a snippet of it with me. I want to share this with you too!

Someone advised, “If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.” But kindness and goodness extend far beyond how we talk about each other. The person who dares to be good - and Do good - may have to find the heart to stand up and be counted.

Not too long into the American Civil War the Union finally won a victory at Antietam. President Lincoln used the occasion to produce a proclamation to free American slaves. It was his Emancipation Proclamation. He called his cabinet together and laid the document before them. He had been shaking the hands of well-wishers all morning and his arm and hands were stiff. He rested his arm and spoke to Secretary of State William Seward.

“If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, ‘He hesitated.’” Then he picked up a pen and signed “Abraham Lincoln” in bold writing. That signature, coupled with a later Union victory, changed the course of history forever. American slaves were finally freed.

It’s not always about being nice. It’s about doing the right thing. And it was never put better by anyone than by eighteen century church reformer John Wesley:

“Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

in all the ways you can,

in all the places you can,

at all the times you can,

to all the people you can,

as long as ever you can.”

TIME OF THANKSGIVING

“How good it is to give thanks to you, O LORD,
to sing in your honor, O Most High God,
to proclaim your constant love...” Psalm 92.1, 2a, GNT

Indeed, the Lord has been so gracious to our family even this year. Our family was shifted to a new town since my dad stepped down from a church ministry after serving for 30 years…it was during the last summer on the month of August. Last summer was very hot at this time too, and we were moving in from a moderate climate to an extremely humid climate condition! We could barely manage the heat. At the peak hours the temperature rose to 37-38'C.

Having born and brought up in a very moderate and cool atmosphere for more than two decades, it definitely was an unpleasant situation at the beginning. Anyway, we were blessed with a wonderful home at the new place…which was already preoccupied by my eldest sister on rentals so we easily moved in. The neighbourhood was good and friendly, because mostly all our close ones were already living nearby at a walk-able distance. It was a good location after all…we felt very much at home.

The building we rented did not have free open space, moreover, we weren’t the only ones living there. We had all together four families technically living under the same roof. Of course, we stayed in different flats [Oh! By the way it had only two storeys, and the second one wasn’t practically a storey in pseudo. It was more like a terrace-cum-storehouse]. And so we proudly occupied the entire first floor which accommodated six rooms which were considerably spacious. Since we didn’t have much space to have a small kitchen garden, my mother started visiting the terrace very often… Now, I knew that there was going to be a little project called the “Terrace-Garden” Project. Initially, I was reluctant. First, the house wasn’t ours…it was rented. So there had to be some risk. Second, I was going to be the gardener, being the only free person at home. More work for me. Third and most importantly, I wasn't mentally prepared for all these! I started to imagine creeper plants creeping down my room windows, vegetables growing all over the top of a building more like a green hair-do for our rented house! I started to have very ‘complex’ imagination! I also imagined myself struggling to find my way out to the exit wondering where I was, inside the thickly grown garden above my very room!

Nevertheless, after everything has been said and done…about our little “terrace-garden”, all I can think of, and finally say is, it was God, who provided all the bountiful blessings. We hardly went to market to buy tomatoes and chillies as they were just ‘above’ us. Did you just say eggplant? Yes! It’s up there just waiting and ready to be plucked. We praise God for His blessing!

As you can see, the pictures here are all taken from our little garden that we thought would not have been possible due to the hot climate. But God was in control of the climate, the temperature, and everything and provide us with His blessings.

This is just a very small instance to share how God cares for His children. I do believe that He has worked in you on a much greater perspective than this. But that’s not the point I want to stress. It is not about the competition about the quantity, and the quality.

It is about what we needed most and God provided just that!

May we all live a thanksgiving life to our God in every possible way!

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times; having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV)