A man was driving his pickup truck through the country one day, and he lost control after going too fast around a winding road. A nearby farmer heard the commotion, and he jumped on his horse and rode out to the scene. The farmer introduced himself and his horse named Duke, and he assured the motorist that they could pull his truck out of the ravine.
The farmer attached a cable to Duke’s saddle and the hitch of the truck, and then shouted, “Alright Peaches, giddy up! Good boy.” A few seconds later he yelled, “Alright Rascal, giddy up! Good boy.” Then the farmer said, “Alright Duke, giddy up!” And the horse took off and pulled the truck back to the road.
The driver was grateful and thanked the farmer, but he had to know why the farmer shouted to Peaches and Rascal when he only had one horse. “Duke here is blind,” the farmer explained. “He’s too lazy to do any work, but if he thinks there are other horses working too he doesn’t want to be upstaged.”
Sometimes a little positive peer pressure can be a good thing. I am not suggesting we should lie or manipulate like the farmer did to Duke, but perhaps we can encourage each other to do a little more at times. The author of Hebrews put it like this: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works (10:24).”
When I was in school our principal was a great man, the late Dr. Lloyd Meyer. He was always asking us students if we had done our good deed for the day. I never wanted to answer him in the negative, so I was mindful to do something good for someone just in case he asked me. I was reminded of Dr. Meyer a few days ago when I was in the grocery store. An elderly lady was trying to pick up a case of water bottles, and I offered to help her. Once the water was in her cart, she smiled and told me I had done my good deed for the day.
I’m not patting myself on the back; I’m just a blind horse following the lead of a faithful farmer. Dr. Meyer instilled in me the importance of doing something small to help someone else. Isn’t the world a better place when we all look out for each other? There is more than enough self-centeredness and mean-spiritedness to go around. It is a breath of fresh air when we see someone do their good deed for the day.
Shouldn’t that be the trademark of a Christian? If we are to be the ambassadors of Jesus on earth, then doing a good deed for the day seems like the right thing to do. Wouldn’t Jesus be the first to hold the door for someone, to pick up an item that someone dropped, or to let a shopper who only has a loaf of bread cut in line in the checkout aisle? We might not be ending poverty, but we can still brighten someone’s day with a simple good deed.
So let us stir each other up to good works. Let’s do our good deed for the day, and do it in Jesus’ name. These small gestures can open doors to evangelism, as people are more inclined to listen to our words about Jesus after they have seen Jesus in our works.
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