A Ripple Effect

A Ripple Effect

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Hebrews 10:24, NIV

For several months, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was all the rage on social media. Folks were videotaping themselves as they pledged funds to help the ALS Association, dumping vats of ice-cold water on their heads and nominating others to do the same. For a while, it seemed like everyone was doing it: celebrities, family, friends, neighbors. There were even outtakes and gag reels on YouTube about “fails” where challenges went awry, such as when people tried dumping buckets from high above and knocked themselves down or missed entirely.

Sure, it was fun to watch people soak themselves. Yet what was most intriguing, at least to me, was the idea that we can spur one another on to more good. In 2009, CNN reported that an anonymous twenty-eight-year-old man donated a kidney to a stranger. This person’s action set off a ripple effect that resulted in ten people receiving new kidneys, all as a consequence of that single, anonymous donation.^a One single person. That’s it! What an encouragement for us on our quest for kindness—our actions are never wasted, and sometimes they can reach far beyond our wildest hopes.

Perhaps donating a kidney is out of reach, but there are lots of other ways to pay it forward. For instance, one day I was at our local Goodwill purchasing curtains and curtain rods. The older lady in front of me said hello to my children, and we chatted for a few minutes about the weather while she checked out. A few minutes later, when I reached the register myself, I was astonished to find that she had left money to pay for part of my bill. She didn’t know it, but the purchases I was making that day were going toward a new women’s wing at our local homeless shelter. Through her generosity, she had unknowingly been part of a two-fold act of kindness that extended far beyond our single encounter. Her desire to pay it forward set off a chain reaction. Even our small actions can cause giant ripples of kindness.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Think of one way you can pay kindness forward.