“Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.”  – 3 John 1:11 

If we want to witness goodness we needn’t look far.  It often occurs right under our noses.  This thought occurred to me this past week when I stopped by our neighborhood Kroger store to pick up a few things.  While looking around for a small shopping cart I was approached by a young employee who had been retrieving baskets from the parking lot and seemed to recognize my need.  Sir, he asked, are you looking for one of the smaller baskets?  Yes, I am, I replied.  Just a moment, he said, as he went out of his way to fetch one for me.  What an act of kindness, I thought, and so unexpected – above and beyond the call of duty!

Once inside the store I spotted Ronaldo, the produce manager, meticulously fussing over the fruits and vegetables, as he always does, to ensure only the freshest products are in the bins.  I got to know Ronaldo because he and my wife have become big buddies.  Every time she sees him she goes over and gives him a big hug and sometimes a kiss on the cheek, which makes him beam with delight.  In return Ronaldo makes sure Tee gets only the best from the produce section.  But that’s not the reason for her affection, she simply likes him because of the kind, warm-hearted, hard-working gentleman he is.

Then came an announcement over the store’s intercom encouraging shoppers to donate a dollar or two toward school supplies for needy children.  Standing in line at the checkout a few minutes later I was amazed by the many generous responses toward that most worthy cause.

It just goes to show that if we want to witness goodness we needn’t look far.  It often occurs right under our noses, even during a brief, mundane shopping excursion to the neighborhood supermarket.  Ninety-nine percent of life, I’ve come to believe – both good and bad – happens under the radar, in our homes, workplaces and schools, neighborhoods and communities.  The headline news that so often occupies our attention, though not insignificant or unimportant, is but a small portion of what really matters.  What does matter is what we do and what we are able to influence others to do, like those fellow shoppers in Kroger who through their generosity influenced me to give a few extra bucks for the cause as well.  So, “Dear friends, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.”

“The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”  – John 3:8 

Many circumstances are simply beyond our control.  They are like the wind in West Texas where I grew up.  Out there it blows almost all the time, and you can complain all you want but there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.  Wind is perhaps the most elusive and least controllable of all nature’s elements.  Rain, for example, cannot be controlled in its occurrence, but at least the water it produces can be captured and contained in reservoirs, and flooding can be averted much of the time by the creation of watersheds, dams, and levies.  But wind can neither be captured nor its effects averted.  It simply comes and goes as it will.

Such are those annoying, uncontrollable, and sometimes destructive circumstances we face – the economy, war, disease, pollution, crime or natural disasters.  We can complain all we want but there’s not a darn thing we can do about it.  Or is there?  Although no one can control the West Texas wind, there are creative ways it can be used for good.  Decades ago, for example, someone discovered that water can be pumped out of underground aquifers using windmills, providing much needed water to thirsty livestock.  More recently that concept has advanced much further as hundreds of giant towers have been erected with huge propellers that turn gracefully in the wind generating pollution-free electricity.  Billions of dollars are being invested in this new technology of using otherwise annoying uncontrollable wind for the good of mankind.

All of us can find ways to be windmills in the uncontrollable circumstances we face.  While we cannot control the economy, we can tend to our own finances prudently.  We can’t stop wars, but we can try to live peacefully with our neighbors.  We can’t stop others from polluting, but we can be good stewards of the environment.  We can’t cure diseases, but we can comfort those who suffer.  We can’t stop crime, but we can contribute to making our neighborhoods safer by providing better education and teaching higher values to children so that fewer will grow up to be criminals.  We can’t prevent natural disasters, but we can pitch in to help the victims.  For, just like in West Texas, “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”  But as a windmill does, it can be turned into good.

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought . . .”  – Romans 12:3 

For several years we owned and operated a small cattle ranch in West Texas; tiny, in fact, in comparison to other ranches in the area.  Nevertheless, it was a successful little venture, producing a profit almost every year – none of which, however, was much to our credit; for what we knew about the cattle business was just about enough to be dangerous.  But we had the exceptional good fortune to have as partners the owners of the adjacent property, the Holland family, who had been engaged in farming and ranching for decades.  They had more knowledge about the cattle business in a little finger than we could have gained in a lifetime – what to buy, when to buy, when to sell and where to sell, not to mention how to properly manage and nurture the livestock in the meantime.  All we provided was the land and half the working capital.  Yet, even though they did most of the hard work, they never once treated us as if we contributed anything less.

Besides their labor and knowledge, the Hollands were also people of impeccable integrity, most evident in our dealings with them on financial matters.  When it came time to sell our cows, for example, without fail we would receive our share of the proceeds within a couple of days accompanied by a detailed settlement statement.  On the other hand, when we owed them money for the purchase of a new herd, it was often times weeks before we would receive a bill, and that after multiple inquiries.  Don’t worry, they’d always say, we just haven’t gotten around to sending you an invoice.

Ours was a relationship embedded in a deep level of trust; for “when you trust people,” according to Stephen M.R. Covey in his book The Speed of Trust, “you have confidence in them – in their integrity and in their abilities.  When you distrust people, you are suspicious of them – of their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities, or their track record.  It’s that simple.”  The Hollands proved to have both integrity and ability. 

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.”  One thing I observed in dealing with the Hollands is that they never shied from accepting more than their share of the blame, nor did they claim more than their share of the credit.  That is not only how great business people behave but is also the mark of great leadership.  Amazingly, those who follow these same principles tend to be the ones who succeed year after year.

“And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .”  – Hebrews 13:16 

“Share everything.  Play fair.  Don’t hit people.  Put things back where you found them.  Clean up your own mess.  Don’t take things that aren’t yours.  Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.  Wash your hands before you eat.  Flush.  Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  Live a balanced life – learn some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.  Take a nap every afternoon.  When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.  Be aware of wonder.”  Such simple yet profound wisdom from Robert Fulghum’s bestselling book from the 1980’s, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten!

Every so often I feel the urge to pull that little book off my bookshelf, blow the dust off and scroll through its pages; for how easy it is to become distracted by the wrong motives, by achievement and performance, consumption and accumulation, and other worldly, selfish desires.  Robert Fulghum’s simple message helps me get re-centered on what really matters.  And to think, these are lessons we all learned as far back as kindergarten.

For several years my wife Tee has been volunteering two days every week at Hugs Café, one of the finest lunch establishments in our adopted hometown of McKinney, Texas.  But Hugs is no ordinary restaurant.  While it does serve delicious food, Hugs is unique because it exists to serve an even greater purpose, to provide employment opportunities for adults considered to have special needs such as Downs Syndrome.  Established as a nonprofit by its visionary founder Ruth Thompson and her husband Chris, dear friends of ours, Hugs depends on volunteers like Tee to work alongside the paid “team members”, who are provided a sense of purpose and a chance to earn a decent wage.

To have lunch at Hugs Café is to experience what we all learned in kindergarten – share everything, play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your mess, and so on.  Except at Hugs there’s an added bonus, one we also probably learned in kindergarten – when you leave you get a hug.  Like Robert Fulghum’s book, Hugs Café helps me get re-centered on what really matters.  It also brings to mind that little passage from Hebrews: “And don’t forget to do good and to share with others.”

“Take care of my sheep.”  – John 21:16 

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” Ebenezer Scrooge tried to remind the ghost of his late business partner Jacob Marley in Dickens’ timeless story A Christmas Carol.  “Business!” cried the ghost in response.  “Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

I once found myself in a somewhat heated debate with another gentleman over whether it was the role of business to be compassionate.  Although he himself was a compassionate person, he took the position that compassion was not the purpose of business.  I argued to the contrary.  But I’ve since had second thoughts.  If I could relive that debate I might agree that it is not the role of business to be compassionate, compassion being a word that seems too soft a term.  Instead I would argue this way, that regardless what business or profession one is in, it is first and foremost a people business; for no business or profession would even exist except to help other people meet their needs and desires.

Curious as to what was behind the success stories of some of America’s most exceptional long-lasting companies, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras of the Stanford Graduate School of Business did an extensive six-year study of eighteen visionary companies, as they called them, in direct comparison with one of each company’s competitors.  Using long-term stock performance as their measure, what they discovered is that a dollar invested in the visionary companies over a long period of time outperformed a dollar invested in the comparison companies by six times, and over fifteen times that of the general market.  While their findings were extremely complex, the differentiator essentially boiled down to this: the visionary companies view their core purpose as serving mankind, while the comparison companies view theirs as achieving profitability.  (Reference, Built to Last, by Collins and Porras)

“Take care of my sheep,” Jesus instructed his apostle Peter.  Similarly, Marley cried out to Scrooge, “Mankind was my business!”  I wonder, had Scrooge and Marley been operating that way all along, would they have been lesser “good men of business”?