FAITH FOR TODAY: Do good to everyone

Sometimes we see clearly the fingerprints of God. Today is one of those days. I regularly post a verse of the day on Facebook. Usually, it comes with a thought that I feel moved to add to the verse. This is part of my devotion to Jesus. I look at a daily verse each morning and meditate on it briefly, then it is released out into the digital world with a prayer that it blesses someone.

This morning my verse was Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith." My added thought was something about having our radar on so that we don’t miss the opportunities. The verses directly before this verse talk about living to please the Spirit of Jesus rather than pleasing myself. So there is this choice between selfish responses or spiritual radar responses.

So it was mid-morning on a day away from the office (some call it a day off) and I was checking emails. I got this message that someone from Ontario wanted to speak with me. It was neither a name nor a number that I recognized. My selfish thought, “I’ll touch base on Monday when I am back in the office.” But my spiritual radar thought was, “It won’t hurt to call now.” When I call I get the answering machine. Self thought, “Leave the church number and deal with this Monday.” Ah, but the SR (Spiritual Radar) said, “Leave your cell phone so that the person can contact you today.”

I go back to what I was doing which was actually trying to come up with an inspiration for this article. I began to type something when my cell phone rang. It was the person calling back. I picked it up and said hello.

“Is this Father John Dunnett?” was the question from the other end. As a Baptist pastor, I am rarely if ever called Father. It usually signals that I am speaking with someone of a Catholic background. And sure enough, this was the case today. What followed was a conversation about the stations of the cross and a picture of Saint Veronica that had once been at First Baptist when the building was Saint Gregory's Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps it was still at the building.

The gentleman was wondering if I could meet him at the church so that we might look for the picture. Selfish thought, “It’s my day off so it will have to wait.” SR thought, “Sure after all my devotion for the day is about being good to everyone.” So how does this story end? I don’t know yet. I will meet him later today and we will look for the picture. That is the way it is when we live to please the spirit of Jesus. We are nudged by the Holy Spirit to see and seize the opportunities before us.

I trust that you will have your own stories of God’s spirit directing you to do good to someone today. Keep your spiritual radar on and seize the opportunity.