Have you ever noticed how truly intelligent people believe they have so much more to learn? And the kindest people you know have a tendency to say things like, “I need to be better?” Or the people who do things away from the spotlight are so humble and would never want their acts of kindness to “go viral?”
I have shared this before, but it makes my stomach turn when I see social media posts about “giving.” It’s people tooting their own horns, which takes away from their generosity. A couple of years ago, a pastor of some sort was out to dinner with his family and using his phone, recorded giving his waiter a $100 tip, and the waiter’s reaction. Was it generous of this man to tip his waiter $100? Of course it was. But the whole, “look at what I did, in the name of Jesus to bless this man,” part made me queasy. Why? Because it went viral and people were talking about how great that man was, instead of the face of Jesus being seen.
I am all for sharing ideas and ways to be kind and generous. But I wish we would do it without the, “look at me” aspect. We don’t have to take photos of our “overtipping.” We don’t have to record giving a gift to someone in need. We can just do it. God sees, and that’s all that matters.
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” - Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV)
Jesus was talking about praying in this scripture, but He was teaching a lesson to do things privately. To not draw attention to our actions/prayers/good deeds.
We as a society have become so obsessed with selfies, and look at me posts; we are missing opportunities to show humility. In showing humility, we show Jesus, rather than ourselves. When we pay for someone’s gas who does not have enough money, the world doesn’t have to read about it. When we overtip the pregnant waitress, there is no need to take a picture of our receipt to look for, “atta boys” on Facebook. Papa sees everything we do, and by giving and being kind and generous, quietly; the recipient gets to experience the goodness of God rather than the goodness of Aimee, Terry, Michala, etc.
I don’t want people to know about acts of kindness we do … I want them to experience an answered prayer. Let’s be mindful about giving and the way we give, in order to give back to God, through blessing His children. We don’t need praise on this side of The Kingdom for doing big gestures. We just need to be the delivery method for someone else to praise God.