“Wait. Don’t Kill Yourself.”

It finally snowed here in New England.  We’ve had barely a flake from November first until now.  It’s a heavy snow and the city snowplow built quite a barrier across the end of our driveway.  Grabbing the snow shovel I headed out to the barrier to do battle.  As I was digging in for that first heavy load a man with a pickup outfitted with a plow saw my task.  “Wait,” he called.  “Don’t kill yourself. I’ll be right there.”  In a few moments all was clear.  Needless to say I was grateful and even more so when he adamantly refused any money.

I wanted to pass this along just for the sake of saying not all is bad with the world.  The news is usually so gruesome.  We hear all manner of horror from self annihilating walking bombs to weapons powerful enough to destroy our planet.  Murders, robberies and rapes fill our evening news broadcasts.  It’s the bad stuff that makes the news while everyday millions of good people do millions of good things for others.

The Golden Rule has not been lost in the mire of humanity.  The Silver Rule says, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.”  That’s not bad at all but the Golden Rule is so much better.  “Do to others what you want them to do for you.”  In Romans 12:13 Paul tells us to be “inventive in hospitality.”  We should not just wait for an opportunity to do something nice.  We should be creative and make opportunities.

The world isn’t totally bad.  Who knows maybe he did save me from killing myself.  As we all know old guys shouldn’t be shoveling heavy snow.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 1, 2012

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org