The unseen impact of everyday kindnesses

I often drive with Google Maps on in my car. Even when I'm commuting, I'll usually have it on the screen. One of the reasons is that it has live-traffic information that can be helpful - especially if there are roadworks, traffic, or police doing a speed check.

And within the app, I can easily press the "Report" button if I notice an obstacle other people might want to be aware of and thus avoid - debris on the road, a broken-down car, yet another roadworks project.

One afternoon I reported an accident so other drivers could be aware, and continued my drive home. It was a couple of hours later I got a new notification, saying I'd helped 910 other drivers because of my report. I'd forgotten I'd tapped those buttons hours earlier! But somehow they'd helped almost a thousand cars behind me on the road.

This got me thinking about how our simple actions can ripple out into the world, to people we may never meet or know. And we may never know how far the ripple goes or what it results in. We won't get a phone notification with the stats. But that shouldn't discourage us from being kind to those we interact with, seeking to make their day brighter or easier.

And so I'm reminded to ask the cashier how their day is doing, and waiting to hear the reply. To smile at the people I pass on my walks. To ask the next question in the conversation and remember the details that were shared with me so I can follow up later.

I am not always good at this. Especially when I'm tired or using my second language. But I want to remember that God sees the quiet choices to love my neighbour, and can be trusted with the outcome of my small acts of obedience.

So, notifications or not, may we choose small acts of kindness towards the people in front of us this week.

Raising Ebenezers

A couple of years ago I read through the Bible chronologically using The Bible Recap podcast. It was my second time using this plan and I find it so helpful to better grasp the timeline of the story. 

The fact that plan is chronological means you spend nine months of the year in the Old Testament. As I travel through the Old Testament, there are times I want to shake the Israelites ever so slightly. They just seem so forgetful. God miraculously rescues them from Egypt, and within pages they're wishing to go back to Egypt, sure that God has brought them out of slavery just to abandon them. 

Or, later, we have the downward spiral of the book of Judges where "everyone did what was right in their own eyes". There are bright spots along the way, but the people quickly forget the good fruit of obedience when the good judges die. There are also the repeating cycles of idolatry and unfaithfulness before returning to the Lord. 

Reading the stories of these people, I can get so very frustrated by their forgetfulness. How quickly they lose sight of all that God has done for them and all that he has promised to bring to completion. 

As I journey through Scripture I enjoy tracking the ways God helps his people remember and rehearse his faithfulness to them. God ordains a weekly sabbath, reminding his people that they can trust in his provision for them in all things. There are yearly feasts and fasts and an entire year of jubilee every fifty years. 

In 1 Samuel 7, God helps the Israelites defeat their enemies, the Philistines. And after the battle "Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”" (1 Samuel 7:12). And Ebenezer means "stone of help".

This story was included in the beautiful hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robertson in the lines,

"Here I raise my Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I've come"

I wonder what it was like for the Israelites who saw that stone in their everyday lives, on good days and hard days. I wonder how much it prompted them to remember how God had acted on their behalf after they had turned back to him.

And the truth is, I am not unlike the forgetful people we find in Scripture. I can quickly lose sight of the abundant provision I receive from God, day after day, year after year. Or quickly forget the answers to prayer I've graciously received, which can cause me to question if God will really do what he has promised this next time. 

And so I want to use this little corner of the internet to raise my Ebenezers, stones to mark the moments of God's faithful provision along the way. I hope this encourages you to also notice and mark his faithfulness towards you on the path he is leading you along.