A number of months ago the Lord put this theme on my heart for our church – “Give Yourself a Lift!“ There are a number of ways you can elevate your life and the Bible gives practical principles of elevation that actually have powerful healing qualities to them. These principles, if practiced on a daily basis, are powerful enough to lift you out of despair, powerful enough to lift you out of anxiety, and powerful enough to lift you out of depression. Here is one of those principles:
Give yourself a lift by lifting others.
In the New Living Translation, Galatians 6:10 says Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
To me this is the embodiment of a righteous life – doing the right thing at the right time, doing something good at every opportunity. This is the way you elevate your life. This is the way you lift your life above the contrary winds that assail you. This is the way you lift your life and mount up with wings like the eagle of Isaiah 40:31 – Do good at every opportunity.
Recently, my wife, Emilie, and I spent part of the day having lunch with some friends and helping them shop for a fifth wheel trailer. As we traveled back home, we encountered one of those irritating traffic hazards that we all encounter once in awhile. You know the one I’m talking about – a stalled car in an intersection.
Of course everyone was trying to navigate past the stall, and as my friend turned to go around the car, something inside of me said, “Don’t”. So I said to my friend, “Why don’t we stop and see what’s wrong.” I jumped out of the car as we pulled over and walked back to the stalled car in the intersection to find a grandmother with her two grand kids fearfully sitting in the car trying desperately to get it started, as one car after another honked at them in irritation while driving around them. The car smelled like burnt radiator fluid and Grandma looked up and apologized to me that her car was so old. I suggested we get her and the kids out of harms way, so we pushed the car out of the intersection and onto the side road next to the curb.
It was a hot day, so Emilie ran into the corner Seven Eleven store to get the kids a Slurpee while my friend and I tried to find out what was wrong with the car. Grandma pulled out her cell phone to try and get a hold of her daughter to come and help, and as she went to dial the phone her hand started shaking, and she started crying. At that moment, Emilie returned with the Slurpees, handed one each to the kids and rapped her arms around the shaking grandmother and asked her if she could pray for her. She said, “Yes, Please”. So, we all gathered around grandma, kids and all, on the side of the road while Emilie prayed thanking God for protecting them and asking Him to give them peace.
After the hug and the prayer, grandma looked up with tears still in her eyes and said, “You must be angels”! “Yep!”, I said. “I’m an angel. An angel in disguise”! Emilie reached over and smacked me on the arm and said, “No you’re not”. We waited with them until help arrived and then we hugged grandma and the two kids goodbye.
As we drove away, I realized the routine of our day had been interrupted by a moment of elevation. We felt lifted in our hearts not because of the lunch we had together or the purchase of a new trailer. Our lives had been lifted in a moment of kindness, our lives had been lifted, because we had been given an opportunity to do something good, and we did it.
Give yourself a lift by lifting others!