Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” {Matthew 22: 37-40 (NLT)]
In Hebrew, mitzvah means command and the mitzvoth are the 613 commandments that came from God in the Old Testament. In Reformed Judaism (and Yiddish), mitzvah has come to mean “good deed.” In actuality, I’m sure any good deed falls somewhere within one of those 613 original commands! Moreover, isn’t every good deed a way to connect with God and express both our love for Him and for our neighbor?
Recently, we did what my Jewish friends would call a “mitzvah.” As my husband and I started out on the boardwalk, we politely greeted a young woman. Hoping to walk by ourselves, we headed in the opposite direction. The woman, however, asked if she could join us. Although not what we’d planned, something about her told me she needed more than a guide through the swamp; she needed someone with whom to talk. My husband walked ahead, occasionally stopping to wait for us at various benches along the way. She and I strolled along, taking pictures and chatting. Although I pointed out birds and flowers, most of the conversation centered on her, her pain and uncertainty. We talked about trusting God, having faith, and church.
As a result of her joining us, our walk at the swamp took more than twice the usual time. Our mitzvah, however, came with a reward. Yes, we saw the usual: anhingas, herons, and a limpkin. Then, as we arrived at the raised viewing platform, we glanced up to see three swallow-tail kites. Had we been anywhere else in the swamp, we’d never have spotted them. Seeing those graceful birds with their long pointed wings and forked tails as they soared effortlessly in the sky was an “Aha!” moment from God. After a few minutes, the birds flew off and we walked on. Later, we stopped to look over the prairie. Our new-found friend saw a green anole and we patiently waited while she tried to get a shot of it. Had we not paused, we wouldn’t have seen a doe and her fawn as they pranced across the field, kindly stopping once for a photo opportunity. This rare sighting was another one of God’s “Aha!” moments. As we continued our walk along a side trail, we warned our companion that we’ve never seen any wildlife there. To our surprise, we came upon a Florida cooter just starting to make her nest. We stopped and watched as she dug in the soft dirt. Then, to our delight, she dropped her eggs and carefully buried them. While I’ve seen turtles laying eggs, this was the first time I’ve ever watched the whole process, start to finish, and from the “business end” of the turtle. This was the “hat trick” of “Aha!” moments for the day. Yet, we wouldn’t have been witness to any of them had we not taken the time to give a little of ourselves to someone who needed some companionship.
Jesus told the Pharisees the two greatest commands: love God and love your neighbor. Those two mitzvoth were the basis for all the rest of those 613 Old Testament commands. Every time we are helpful, generous, kind, compassionate, responsive, caring, supportive, and obliging we are obeying His command and doing a mitzvah! Cynics often say, “No good deed goes unpunished.” I prefer thinking that a good deed is its own reward! Moreover, while every good deed is its own reward, God usually puts a little something extra there for us, even if it is three kites, two deer, and a turtle in labor!
Kind deeds often come back to the givers in fairer shapes than they go. [Louisa M. Alcott]
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. [Luke 6:38 (NLT)]
Copyright ©2016 jsjdevotions. All rights reserved.
It’s a matter of perspective. When in Egypt, the Israelites hated being slaves to their cruel masters yet, every time they faced danger or difficulty, they longed to return there. This past March, my Florida friends wore gloves, jackets, and hats and complained of the cold when the temperature fell to 60 degrees. That same month, we were in the mountains of Colorado. When it got to 60 degrees there, off came the hats, gloves and jackets and people ate outside! Yesterday, my mother-in-law commented on the unseasonable heat in Illinois—it was 80 degrees! On the other hand, when it only got to 80 here in Florida, the weatherman called it “unseasonably cool.” It’s a matter of perspective.
I recently received an email from a Christian bookstore apologizing for one of their advertisements. Apparently, there had been objections to their “journaling” Bible ad, not because of the possible defacing of a Bible with doodles but because of the ad’s subject line: “Channel Your Inner Creative.” Customers protested their use of “inappropriate” New Age language. While the store’s goal had been to “embrace and celebrate the gift of creativity,” some people thought they were touting “channeling,” a New Age form of spiritualism. When channeling, people yield control of their discerning and reasoning faculties and enter a meditative or trancelike state in order to receive messages from a spiritual guide. When I first saw the ad, I gave no thought to its wording; I simply thought they were offering Bibles with extra wide margins so the reader could write notes or prayers on the pages. In their apology, the store promised to be “more vigilant and discerning” about their messaging. My first reaction upon receiving the apology was, ”Come on people—get a life!” I considered the complainers to be the kind of prissy judgmental people who give Christians a bad name.
After the GPS flawlessly led us to our hotel in Orlando, we wondered how a satellite navigation system can keep track of countless cars and their various destinations. The following day, I looked at the GPS screen and the arrow indicating our position was several blocks east of us. It seemed to think we were driving over a golf course, across a canal and into a lake. Apparently, that eye in the sky is nowhere near as accurate as we’d originally thought. There are around 24 satellites orbiting at any one time to provide us with global positioning and we need to receive signals from at least three of them to get accurate directions. The line between the satellites and GPS must be unobstructed, so tall buildings, heavy woods, tunnels, mountains, and storms can all interfere with receiving a signal. We figured something had interfered with the satellites’ view of us. Later that day, after following its directions to Sea World, our faith in the system was shattered. As we passed Sea World’s clearly marked exit, we were told to continue five miles eastward and then go north. At that point, we consulted a map and turned around. Personally, I think we got someone else’s directions to an entirely different location! We were just one car among thousands of tourists using their GPS to guide them through the land of Mickey Mouse. Perhaps the system was overloaded and some other poor soul was being led to Sea Word when he probably wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom. Who knows? All I know is that I’m not getting rid of our maps anytime soon!
I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to unplug the televisions until after the elections in November. It doesn’t matter which party or which candidate, the conduct and rhetoric has become nearly unbearable. Today’s Bible reading took me to Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes—those declarations of blessedness given by Jesus at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount. I couldn’t help but contrast His words with the behavior of our politicians, their supporters and the news media. I then remembered A.W. Tozer’s observation that, if we were to take the Beatitudes and turn them inside out, we’d have the “very qualities which distinguish human life and conduct.”
Having been raised in the Episcopal Church, I’ve always observed Lent and practiced some sort of self-denial during the six weeks from Ash Wednesday to Easter. According to Christianity Today, nearly one in five Americans observed Lent in 2015. In a survey this year, more than 400,000 tweeted about their fasts and food or drink and technology were the most popular categories of denial.
