The Present Is Not For My Son's Future

In the May 28, 1998, edition of USA Today, the following appeared among the letters to the editor:

Will somebody help me save my son?

My son is two years old and is a reflection of complete innocence.  His vulnerability to this harsh, violent ignorant and uncaring world just rips my heart apart.  He knows nothing of the killing within the schools that are supposed to prepare children for the world.  He knows nothing of the abuse that happens within the homes of children just his age.  As he plays with his toys, he is oblivious to the tragedies that occur every day across the country.  And as he clutches his blanket, sleeping soundly, dreaming of the mommy and daddy who love him, he has no idea of the complete social and moral decay of our country.

Does anyone care anymore?  Will somebody please, please help me save my son?

- Edward Moats, Bellair Beach, Florida

- Letters to the editor in USA Today, (May 28, 1998)

This Is A Way To Help Themselves

Clarence Jordan, a philosopher-farmer in Americus, Georgia, was convinced that poor people living in dilapidated shacks could improve themselves with a little support. “They don’t need charity,” he said to Millard Fuller, who visited Jordan’s church community, Koinonia Farm. “They need a way to help themselves.”

Millard Fuller, thirty, who was nearly a millionaire, was inspired by Jordan to begin what today is a worldwide organization to provide housing for the poor. Habitat for Humanity runs on what he calls “the theology of the hammer.” The group raises money and recruits volunteers to renovate and build homes, which are sold at cost. Mortgages are interest free to qualified recipients. Habitat now builds or renovates twelve houses every day.

 — Ward Williams, 
“Jesus’ Vacation,” PreachingToday.com

Giving Others A Push

Jean Nidetch, a 214 pound homemaker desperate to lose weight, went to the New York City Department of Health, where she was given a diet devised by Dr. Norman Jolliffe.

Two months later, discouraged about the 50 plus pounds still to go, she invited six overweight friends home to share the diet and talk about how to stay on it. Today, 28 years later, one million members attend 25,0000 Weight Watchers meetings in 24 countries every week. Why was Nidetch able to help people take control of their lives? 

To answer that, she tells a story. When she was a teen-ager, she used to cross a park where she saw mothers gossiping while the toddlers sat on their swings, with no one to push them. "I’d give them a push," says Nidetch. "And you know what happens when you push a kid on a swing? Pretty soon he’s pumping, doing it himself. That’s what my role in life is--I’m there to give others a push." 

- shared by SermonCentral.com

Too Much Criticism, Too Little Gratitude

I was helping a friend plant a tree at the local park. She had planted twenty-three trees already, most of them without any help. The trees were donated by family members in remembrance of loved ones. While we were working, a woman approached us. I recognized her and assumed she was there to say thank you.

“Remember the tree you planted for me the other day?” she asked.

My friend nodded.

“You planted it too close to the road. It needs to be moved.” Then she turned and left.

I don’t think this woman was intentionally rude. She was probably distracted, or maybe she’d had a bad day, but, still — of the twenty-three trees my friend planted, only two people remembered to say, “Thank you.”

 — Teresa Bell Kindred, 
Kentucky Living (October 2000)

Brothers In Arms

Jim McNulty is a detective constable in Scotland.  He went online one day to report that a London officer had been killed in the line of duty and two others injured.  On reading this, comrades from other countries wondered why bulletproof vests hadn't worked.  McNulty explained that the government doesn't provide vests for police officers in Great Britain. 

Las Vegas Police Lt. Dennis Cobb immediately responded via email offering his spare vest.  Within days McNulty was deluged with messages from police all over United States and Canada offering their vests, which were due for replacement but still effective.  A few weeks later, an initial shipment of 30 vests was transported free of charge to London's Heathrow.  Since news of the program broke, thousands more vests have been sent to Britain.

McNulty said, "All the officers here are absolutely astounded at the lengths their fellow officers in the United States have gone to for them."

- Michele D. Kinnamon, CompuServe Magazine

Walk The Talk, That's What We're Looking For

A man in a rural county down south was campaigning for a seat in the Senate.  One rainy, miserable evening there was a knock on the door.  A man he didn't know stood outside, soaking wet.  "I need help," the man said.  "My car is stalled down the road.  Would you help me?"

"Sure," said the candidate.  When they reached the car, the owner got in and turned the key.  The car started up immediately.

"I don't understand," said the would-be senator.  "There was nothing wrong with your car."

The other man smiled.  "I know.  I also know that this state needs a good man up there in Washington," he explained.  "I just wanted to know if you were the kind of man I could vote for.  Now I know.  You've got my vote."

- Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker's Quote Book (Christian Literature Crusade, 1997)

Kindness Reciprocated Unexpectedly

Many years ago two young men were working their way through Stanford University.  At one point their money was almost gone, so they decided to engage the great pianist Paderewski for a concert and use the profits for board and tuition.  Paderewski's manager asked for a guarantee of two thousand dollars.

The students worked hard to promote the concert, but they came up four hundred dollars short.  After the performance, they went to the musician, gave him all the money they had raised, and promised to pay the four hundered dollars as soon as they could.  It appeared that their college days were over.  "No, boys, that won't do," said the pianist.  "Take out of this sixteen hundred dollars all your expenses, and keep for each of you 10 percent of all the balance for your work.  Let me have the rest."

Years passed.  Paderewski became premier of Poland following World War I.  Thousand of his countrymen were starving.  Only one man could help--the head of the U.S. Food and Relief Bureau.  Paderewski's appeal to him brought thousands of tons of food.  Later he met the American statesman to thank him.  "That's all right," replied Herbert Hoover.  "Besides, you don't remember, but you helped me once when I was a student in college."

- Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker's Quote Book (Christian Literature Crusade, 1997)

Caring Is Best Explained When Demonstrated

Years ago I flew to Minneapolis to speak at a conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Near downtown Minneapolis my taxi stopped at a red light four cars back from the crosswalk. I noticed a homeless man lurching between the cars in the middle of the street. When he got to the front of my taxi, he fell and landed on his chin. His chin split open, and there was blood all over the place.

As I looked at this man six feet away, these thoughts went through my head:
1. I have a brand-new suit on that Gail just bought me. I can’t afford to get messed up.
2. I have to get to the convention center to speak in fifteen minutes.
3. I’m in a strange city, and I don’t know what to do.
4. I don’t have any medical training. I wouldn’t know how to help this guy.

I wonder if underneath there wasn’t a fifth thought: If you’re dumb enough to get that drunk, why should someone stop and help you?

For a few seconds those thoughts militated against any movement on my part. Before I could come to better senses, other people came rushing to this man’s help, and I was able to get back into my taxi and go on to the convention center to speak about sensitivity and caring for the needs of other human beings. Isn’t that stupid?

 — Gordon MacDonald, from the sermon “Pointing to Jesus: Generosity,” 
Grace Chapel, Lexington, Massachusetts 
(February 22, 1998)

The Needed Help Came From The Unwanted Hero

Dobie Gadient, a schoolteacher for thirteen years, decided to travel across America and see the sights she had taught about.  Traveling alone in a truck with camper in tow, she launched out.  One afternoon, while she was rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck.  She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone.  In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested in helping.

Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, "Please, God, send me an angel, preferably one with mechanical experience."  Within four minutes, a huge Harley drove up, ridden by an enormous man sporting long, black hair, a beard, and tattooed arms.  With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and went to work on the truck, without even glancing at Dobie.  Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck, attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy, and whisked the whole 56-foot rig off the freeway onto a side street, where he calmly continued to work on the water pump.

The intimidated schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk, especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: "Hell's Angels -- California."  As he finished his task, she finally got up enough courage to say, "thanks so much," and carry on a brief conversation.  Noting her surprise at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and advised, "Don't judge a book by its cover.  You may not know who you're talking to."  With that, he smiled, closed the hood of the truck, and straddled his Harley.  With a wave, he was gone as fast as he had appeared.

- Larry D. Wright, "To Illustrate," Leadership Journal (Spring 1988).  Attributed to a newsletter, Our America.

People Need People

People need people.  Laurie was about three when she requested my aid in getting undressed.  I was downstairs and she was upstairs at that time.  "You know how to undress yourself," I reminded her.

"Yes," she explained, "but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they know how to do things for themselves."

As I slowly lowered the newspaper, a strong feeling came over me, a mixture of delight, anger, and pride; delight in the realization that what I had just heard had crystallized many stray thoughts on interpersonal behavior; anger because Laurie stated so effortlessly what I had been struggling with for months; and pride because, after all, she is my daughter.

- William C. Schutz, quoted by Roy B. Zuck in The Speaker's Quote Book (Christian Literature Crusade, 1997)