Meaning of good deeds

You may have read the recent story about a Massachusetts teenager who was fired from 7-Eleven because she gave a cup of coffee to a homeless man. Apparently she was hired within days by a homeless-services organization.

Good for her. Good for the news services that published her story. And good for the organization that hired her. What a demonstration of cause and effect, ironic, justice.

A similar thread runs through our lives, often undetected. To say that all of us “get what’s coming to us” is not a dire warning; it’s a chunk of common sense wisdom. What’s “coming to us” is the result of what we broadcast. We sow seeds; they grow. And carrots always produce carrots!

I remember dining with a distant acquaintance years ago. This woman was embarrassingly rich (with money, that is), and she treated the waitress like a subhuman. This wealthy pauper proceeded to spend the entire dinner hour complaining about a long list of injustices in her life – people trying to steal from her, disastrous business dealings, bitterly failed relationships, etc.

Good deeds pay off and, likewise, unkind behavior comes back to bite us. How simple, to accept total responsibility for our sowing, making sure every seed thought, word, and action carries the essence of what we would like to see flourishing in the garden of our lives.