Pay It Forward
This past week something beautiful was started, all because of one woman's small act of
kindness. On the first of June this year, a hairdresser in Cape Town posted the following on her
local community Facebook group:
"Hi Ladies, I feel like blessing someone. Looking for a lady who needs a cut and blow–
wave, a cut and blow–wave for her daughter, a cut for her son and a cut for her husband
– all for free. Anyone who suits this description? Will go to the first one to comment."
(Originally posted at 7:16pm on 1 June 2016 to Facebook’s ‘South Peninsula Mom's
Group’)
Since that post, in a little over 24 hours, over 200 acts of kindness were posted in response to this
initial offering. People were offering pretty much anything they could. Even those who felt like
they had nothing offered something. A lady who was interviewed on the news said she was
unemployed but offered to do house cleaning for 3 days for free. And the #payitforward
movement has just kept going.
In the same week, both the United States and Great Britain warned of a possible near future
terrorist attack in South Africa during Ramadan at local shopping malls, especially in
Johannesburg and Cape Town. While driving to work and making plans for the coming public
holiday, we talked about how these threats want to instill fear in people, and in the end that
gives those who live on fear power.
What a paradox!
I wonder what would happen to our world if we heard more of the #payitforward kind of stories
than the potential terror attack stories. What would happen if people consistently saw and
experienced kindness instead of fear and hatred? How would our world be different?
I love that this started on a Facebook group of a local community. Sometimes social media can
be such a volatile, polarising, hateful place where people say the most terrible things, endlessly
complaining about others. But through a simple act of kindness posted on a platform that could
either incite hatred or kindness, this lady started a wave a kindness. Imagine if we chose to act
in a similar fashion, sharing with our communities what we have to offer, giving out the kindness
we posses. It strikes me that this woman is a picture of living as a follower of Jesus in our world
today.
Our world is in desperate need of communities who share love and kindness freely, because in
actuality there is more kindness than terror in our world, and yet we unfortunately don't see that
modeled for us often enough. We are either too isolated or too numb to the endless violence and
hatred around us, all because that is considered newsworthy by the vast majority of us today.
We face a simple decision.
Do we spread kindness or fear:
by what we post online,
by how we treat people who are different from us,
by how we share our lives with those in our communities?
What would happen in our world if instead of spreading hatred and violence, we pay it
forward in kindness and goodness?
Jesus taught us to pray: "May your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth, as it is in
heaven” (Matthew 6). As I see people sharing kindness in their community, I see this prayer
being answered.
I think this makes Jesus smile.
:::