Do What You Can, When You Can

As Christians we strive to be more like Jesus.  We want to be more loving, more compassionate, more giving.

About a month ago, I went to the BASS Convention.  (Bay Area Sunday School)  The theme was to do what we can, when we can.  I would also like to add something to it: "Do what we can, when we can, how we can."  What we do for others doesn't have to be much.  You don't have to spend your life savings on charitable organizations.  You don't have to go find ten orphans to house and feed.  The idea is, that when we go about our daily lives, every aspect of it should be based around being more like Jesus and always thinking about the other people around you.  (Of course, keeping your heart, mind, and body safe at all times.)

As you're walking to your driveway you see a girl on the sidewalk trying to fix her bike.  Giving just five minutes of your time to ask her if she needs help won't hurt.  Of course if she's asking you to give her a ride in the completely opposite direction from where you need to be wouldn't work.  But you could give her a lift to the nearest bus station or a bike shop.  You'd be doing what you can, when you can, all within your means of giving.

You're walking to your nearest grocery store.  You see a woman in her car struggling for some reason.  All the cars around her are honking at her to get out of the way and she's honking right back at them and cussing them out.  It's obvious she's dealing with something.  It wouldn't hurt to ask her if something was wrong and she needed help.  Giving her fifteen minutes of your time wouldn't hurt your stomach in any way.  If her car ran out of gas, you could help her push her car out of the street.  Maybe she was panicking and forgot what to do in that situation.  You could calm her down and walk her through on how to call her insurance company.  You'd be doing what you can, and when you can, and this is again, all within your means of giving.

The two above situations are actually taken directly from my life.  The bike incident happened just yesterday morning, and the car incident happened months ago.  Yesterday evening, another situation came up.

I was sitting at my computer.  I had just woken from a nap and was thinking about eating.  Then someone knocked on my door.  To me, the next five seconds were crucial.  I could have done one of two things.  I could have ignored the knock, or have opened the door.  I make sure all my friends call me before they get to my apartment.  I don't like unexpected visitors.  A random knock could mean anything.  It could mean a stranger with a gun pointed at my head.  In that situation my parents would tell me to wait it out and see if the person knocks again.  Maybe peek out the window, see who it is.  But definitely don't open the door yet.  Of course, as that one rebellious daughter that I am, I shook that thought away and opened the door.  (I love defying my parents' weird rules and regulations.  It's one of my standards of living:  Always do the opposite of what my parents did.)  I opened the door to see my neighbor in tears, pacing side to side, "Jeen, can you take me to the hospital?"

So I rushed her to the hospital, running about three red lights on the way there.  Safely running the three red lights.  Making sure there no cops or cameras, or other cars crossing the road.  Always be safe, especially when breaking laws.

My neighbor has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).  She couldn't hold her food down and was vomiting the entire way there.  She had explosive diarrhea, and was shuddering so bad she couldn't stand straight.  Because of her illness, she doesn't have a steady income.  She braids hair for a living, but only when she has clients, and half the time, she has to cancel on them.  She can barely pay for her rent, let alone all the medical bills.  She had been sick for the whole week, and had to cancel about the entire month's rent in clients.

I hadn't tithed in a couple months.  I don't know why.  I wasn't saving it up for anything.  So last week, I had written out a cheque to the church for a couple months worth of tithes.  But I've been feeling really iffy about giving it to the church.  An opportunity came along, though.  Last week, one of the former youth students (now freshman in college) was going on a mission trip and needed help raising money.  I decided to write out the cheque to her.  It didn't feel quite right, but it felt a lot better.  I was even wondering if I should split the cheque and donate part of it to the KLove ministry.  But when I was sitting next to my neighbor at the hospital, I felt something tug at my heart.  When we got back home, I wrote out the cheque to her, so she could cash it in and pay part of the rent with it.  It felt completely right, and very perfect.  This was why I wasn't compelled to tithe for a while.  I started to see how God was working in her life, through me.

It wasn't just the cheque, though.  Last week, I had made dinner plans with another friend of mine.  We were going to meet up at 7:45pm.  The day before, for some reason, I thought it was Tuesday, and I called her asking her where she was.  We decided to meet up that day instead of Tuesday.  If I had remembered it was Monday, if I had met up with that friend on Tuesday instead, I wouldn't have been at my apartment, and no one would have been there to open the door when she knocked.

Tuesday afternoon, I realized that my car was getting low on gas.  I was thinking about waiting it out, and refueling it early in the morning, because that's what I usually do.  But for some reason, I decided to refuel my car on the way back home.  If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had enough gas to drive my neighbor all the way to the hospital.

You can see through the simplest, tiniest of details, so insignificant that it all seems like a big coincidence, God can orchestrate entire events to help you in your time of need.  He's always there, always looking out for you, always caring about you.  You just can't always see the big picture.

And that's why we have to do our parts.  Every detail, every small, insignificant thing counts.  We should always try to do what we can, and when we can, and how we can.  Through doing so, who knows?  We might just save some lives.