Have you been watching “Race across the World” on television? If you haven’t, here is a brief recap. Five pairs of Brits race 12,000 km across Canada, travelling overland and stopping at various checkpoints along the way. Their budget for the entire trip (which will take several weeks) is the price of the air fare to cross the country. Importantly, they have no mobile phones, and only a map (and, I suppose, a TV crew!) for company.
Canada is a vast and sparce country, and the teams quickly discover that public transport is equally sparce and very expensive. To reach their goal they need to be resourceful and rely on the local knowledge and experience of people they meet along the way. They also need to make themselves vulnerable, opening themselves up to opportunities where these arise and accepting the hospitality and kindness of strangers. Fortunately, Canada has a well-established tradition of “carpooling” and lift sharing. It has been heart-warming and humbling to see how local people have responded to help the travellers, and to see how this has impacted on the British backpackers. In some cases, faiths have been shared; in all cases lives have been enriched.
Whether the givers realise it or not, these random acts of kindness and generosity are wonderful examples of “paying it forward”; the idea that you repay an act of kindness someone has done for you by showing an act of kindness to someone else. Jesus preached on this in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18 vv21-35). In this parable, a king shows mercy on a servant who owes a huge debt which he cannot repay by forgiving him and cancelling the debt. The servant then turns to another man who owes him a small amount but shows no similar mercy. When they king hears this, he is angry.
“You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” (v32)
Jesus’ message is a simple one. We have been loved and forgiven much and so should love and forgive others equally.
On another occasion, when asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind ... and ... Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22, vv37-39 (extract))
This has been paraphrased, and attributed to St Augustine, as: "Love God and do whatever you please". If we really do love God as Jesus commands, then whatever we do, consciously or otherwise, will be to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. “Paying it forward” will become second nature to us.
A daunting challenge? Maybe. But we should all take time to pause and reflect on God’s love for us, and to give thanks for the random acts of kindness shown to us in the past. And we too should all be motivated, and indeed compelled, to “pay it forward” ... even if we may not have the dramatic mountains, glaciers and forests of Canada for inspiration.
Philip Clarke
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