Abundant Living Vol. XXI, Issue 37

“Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” – 1 Corinthians 10:24 

I was just a little tyke when this occurred, maybe four or five, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was just before Christmas and we had gone over to visit my parents’ longtime close friends, Millie and Jack, when just as we stepped in their front door I spied two bushel-baskets beneath their lavishly decorated Christmas tree overflowing with every sort of toy you can imagine.  My eyes glazed over as I figured Santa Claus must have arrived early at their house – and on my behalf no doubt.  Just as I was about to dive into the middle of those bountiful baskets of treasures I heard that all too familiar voice stop me in my tracks.  “No, darling,” Millie lovingly chided, “those toys are for . . . [a certain needy family in our community.]”  Instinctively I knew, even at that young age, exactly the family she was referring to, and that they were indeed needy – and that I was not.  I’ve never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.

For over fifty years Millie labored long sometimes erratic hours caring for people as a nurse.  (She was the delivery room nurse when I was born.)  Even after retirement she had a heart for caring for others in one way or another.  Jack was a prominent grocer, and I’ve been told that during the darkest days of drought and depression in our small farming community he continued to sell groceries on credit knowing many could never afford to pay, his concern always being about feeding families rather than lining his pockets.

Millie and Jack’s lives were driven by the kind of purpose Rick Warren described in his best-selling book a few years back, The Purpose Driven Life, as not about them, but about others, being leaders in every sense of the word, unafraid to take on responsibility for the welfare and betterment of the children and citizens of the community.

Millie lived well into her nineties, and during those last years of her life I would often make the long trek out to West Texas to visit her, to “sit at her feet,” as they say, listen to her stories, absorbing her wisdom.  In the end what I learned is the same thing she taught me all those many Christmases ago when I was a little tyke, and what St. Paul expressed in that great scripture passage, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”  What I learned from Millie and Jack was a gift from God, and as someone once said, “God’s gift to you is often God’s gift to others through you.”  I pray that to be so.