Pay it Forward

Perhaps you heard the news story: over 900 vehicles "paid it forward", picking up the tab of the car behind them for 2 1/2 days! 

How exciting! To enter, or drive through, Dairy Queen and be told that for 125 cars in a row, each customer has picked up the bill, so now your ice cream is free! What else would you do? Of course you'd say "I'll keep it going! I'll pay the bill for the car behind me!" 

It would hardly be a decision you'd have to give much thought to. Of course you would keep the chain going. Of course you'd pay the bill.

And what fun! To know you'd been a part of something so large. 

A simple thing - a game of chance really. 

Perhaps the person who picked up your family's whole meal tab was just in there for a small cone of his own. He paid much more than the price of the cone. And your family: you hit the jackpot! A free meal (or almost free!) It's the luck of the draw. The main thing is you were all going to Dairy Queen. You all knew you were going to spend some money to buy something; what difference to most of us if it's just a little more than we planned to spend. And how much fun if it was much less than you planned to spend. Either way, you win!

You'd join that chain, right? You wouldn't be the one who would say "No. I don't want to pay for the meal of the person behind me. I'll just take this free meal and go."

The fact is, though, that "pay it forward" moments are everywhere we look. And every single one of us can begin the movement...or end it.

Hold the door open for the person behind; pay it forward.

Say "hello!" or "Merry Christmas" to someone you meet on the street; pay it forward.

See someone drop their bag and jump to help pick it up; pay it forward.

Send a note or a card, or make a phone call to a friend; pay it forward.

There are "pay it forward" opportunities in each minute of our day. 

And, yes, I see hope in each person taking advantage of those opportunities to pay it forward. Every single one of them makes our world a little bit better, a bit more kind, a lot more joyous. Paying it forward feels good to the one who receives the gift, but even better to the one who gives.

But my real hope? 

My real hope comes in the very first person who says "I'm paying it forward. I'm not doing this because 125 customers ahead of me have all done it. I'm not doing it because CNN and NBC and the local news station are all here to report it."

I'm paying it forward because right now times are tough. People are sad. The holidays are here, and yet many more people than ever have greater needs than ever. We're struggling because we can't gather as family and friends. We're scared. We're isolated. 

But paying it forward makes a difference. It makes me feel more hopeful. And it makes the world just a little bit better.

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. Ephesians 5:1-2

True Christianity means paying it forward. And that brings true hope to the world.