“Do not withhold good . . when it is in your power to help.” Proverbs 3:27 NLT
“Helpfulness is less about ability and more about availability.”
My thoughts today are about being “happy to help.”
Everyday life is filled with fleeting chances to do something helpful for someone else. A lot of those opportunities go unnoticed because they are not about big or important things, just small kindnesses that could easily be expressed with a bit of thoughtfulness, but be a big help and great encouragement to someone. Often we are waiting to help someone with a big need, but miss several others with just plain, everyday needs.
I don’t think most people withhold good intentionally. I will admit there are occasional exceptions you may come across, but not many people that I have known are just unwilling to be helpful. Often a person merely fails to make a deliberate decision to help whenever they can. It’s good when being helpful is a chosen lifestyle.
Busy lives easily preoccupy one’s time and often distract one’s notice, but that’s not a very good excuse. I can painfully recall some glaring occasions when I could have done more than I chose to do. Those times did not make me very proud. At the moment, I justified myself that someone else would be better help for them than I could, but in my heart I knew it was more about my availability than my ability. It usually is, really. I could have at least offered whatever help I was able to give, but I didn’t and the opportunity was missed.
The Bible says, “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind.” Proverbs 11:17 NLT. I fear it may shrivel a little when you’re not. I think I could use a little more nourishment; I think maybe we all could. The Bible makes it pretty simple, “Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good.” See Galatians 6:9-10 NLT.
Some names come to mind whose lifestyles display the disposition of being happy to help – they are certainly not the only ones I could name, but represent many others – John, whom I found one Saturday morning digging a hole in my front yard because he knew Gayle wanted a flowering bush planted there; or Ivy, who has never met a stranger nor found a need he did not want to meet; or Mike, one of the busiest people I know today and yet I met him when he called to volunteer his sizable help in a very large matter in which I was way over my head; or Kris, who is the most kind-hearted person I know and helps about anyone without a second thought. The Bible describes such people as “doing good, rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share.” 1 Timothy 6:17-19 NIV. Read 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 NIV.
Sure there are others; I hope they know who they are and how thankful that I, and others, are for them. They bear a family resemblance to their Heavenly Father of Whom it can be written, “No good thing will He withhold.” Psalm 84:11 NLT.
Do you know what I wonder right now, I wonder if my name comes to mind when others think of someone being happy to help? Does yours? There is a Scripture that gives me pause, “Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4:17 NIV. Now that’s blunt and to the point, no wiggle room at all. See 1 John 3:17-18 NIV.
My prayer for you today is to be happy to help and very thankful to all others who do.