Thirty Days of Thanks and Giving

November is supposed to be a month of gratitude to God for His grace and for His bounty. Somehow though the holiday of Thanksgiving has become something that has very little to do with thanks or giving. Middle class America sits around crowded tables or in front of televised football games shoving their mouths full of overcooked turkey and store-bought pumpkin pie until they are more stuffed than the butterball that they spent all morning preparing. I can say that because that is the holiday the way it is celebrated by the majority of my friends and family (not to mention myself). It has become a month for gluttons and people who serve idolatry wrapped in pigskin. I just don't want to spend another month that way.

So I have come up with a challenge for myself. I am daring myself to make this month not so focused on me. I want to make it a month of making some small difference in the lives of others. The heart is a muscle and like any muscle you must use it regularly or it will atrophy and die.

Here are the rules for my challenge:

1. The challenge is to last for the full thirty days of November.
2. I must demonstrate at least one act of either thanks or giving each day.
3. It must not benefit me directly in any way. It should be an unselfish gesture.
4. I can not accept credit or receive thanks for the act. That's not the point. God paid me a great kindness and this is a feeble attempt to return some of that kindness.
5. The act should be something unexpected and hopefully a pleasant surprise.
6. I must take every attempt to remain anonymous. The recipient should be a stranger or someone who I do not know well. If at all possible, they should never know where the act of kindness came from.
7. Document every act in my blog and let people follow along with my adventures in trying to live in an attitude of gratitude and my experiment in starting a season of real giving.

Day One:

Tired from working overnight and I slept most of the first day away. When I woke up I was groggy and running late for work. I forgot all about the challenge I had made for myself. I remembered about halfway on my commute and felt sort of guilty for already being delinquent in delivering to others. I decided I would have to do something at work. Maybe this would work out to my advantage. There are plenty of people there are plenty of people that I don't know shopping my store every night.

Now what to do? I remembered reading an article about a woman diagnosed with a disease that was crippling her and would eventually be fatal. She could do nothing for months but focus on the pain and the fact that very soon that she may die. Then through a conversation with her accountability partner she completely changed her attitude. She spent a long afternoon complaining to her friend about her illness. Her friend listened compassionately and then responded in a very gutsy and honest fashion, "Honey, I think you might be a little too focused on yourself. Take the focus off of your pain and the possibilities of death and take some time to focus on others and the possibilities of life." The woman decided right then to make the same challenge to herself that I have decided to make. She decided to spend one month focusing on others through simple acts of kindness and giving. She decided to do one kind thing for another person every day. For her first day, she bought a bouquet of flowers and stood in front of the grocery store handing flowers to each person who came out of the store. It was such a great idea. I decided to emulate it but I thought it might be a little self-serving as the manager of the store to stand in front of my work handing flowers to customers. I am also quite honestly not prepared to be so public in my giving but the concept was good. I also remembered hearing about a man who paid for the lunch order of the next car in the drive-through at a fast food chain and then that car paid for the next and this chain of giving went on for most of an afternoon. I decided to blend those two ideas in a new way.

I bought a bouquet of flowers and whispered to the cashier to give the flowers to the next customer in line and to only tell them that someone bought them who hoped it might brighten their day. I quickly moved myself out of view but still within earshot. The cashier picked up on what I wanted right away and decided to play along. The next customer to come through the line was a tired looking older gentleman with a cart full of groceries and a huge frown on his face. He unpacked his items on the register belt hardly looking up or acknowledging the cashier in front of him. When he finally did look up he saw the cashier with her arm held out and her hand full of beautiful red roses. The man looked confused. "Did someone leave that behind?" I watched from a safe distance as I heard the cashier say, "No,sir. They are for you!" Then she did exactly as I asked and explained to the man that someone had left them for him hoping it would make their day a little better. The man looked honestly surprised and then something awesome happened;his demeanor changed. He stood a little lighter like someone had just taken a heavy weight off of his shoulders. He broke into a little smile that just kept getting wider. He said, "Really? That's great! My wife will love these!" He made a few jokes with the cashier and they exchanged a little small talk and then she said her obligatory, "Have a nice night." He answered in a cheerful tone, "I will,thanks."

I have no idea what happened after this. I don't know how his wife responded when he unexpectedly came home with flowers for her or if he told her the story of where they came from with a chuckle. I didn't need to know to declare this experimental act of kindness a success. I did that the moment I saw him break into a smile at the register and keep it for the full four or five minutes he interacted with that cashier as she checked him out.

I was ready right then to start thinking about my next act of kindness and tomorrow's act of thanks and giving. Please keep reading and be kind enough to leave me a comment. I really want to hear suggestions of additional acts of kindness (or stories of similar acts of random kindness that you may have heard of or participated in) and have you ever been on the receiving end of an act of kindness like this and how did it make you feel? I love to hear from my readers. I really want to make clear that I am not doing this for praise. My ego is large enough. I really want you to know that I believe only the Lord is worthy of adoration and praise and by serving others we are serving the Christ who died to be our savior.

Take up the challenge with me if you like. It isn't proprietary or even an original idea. It is "pay it forward" and what our grandmothers would have called, "good, clean living and giving". Adopt it,adapt it,modify it any way that you like. The most important part is to pass on a little kindness to the people we share this planet with.

Big Love.