Even the smallest good deed can change someone’s life.
“I have spent much of my life thinking about life, observing people, reading books, searching for teachers and exemplars, trying to distinguish between what ultimately matters and what merely seems to matter at the time. I make no claims to wisdom but this I have learned:
that each of us is here for a purpose;
that discerning that purpose takes time and honesty, knowledge of ourselves and knowledge of the world, but it is there to be discovered. Each of us has a unique constellation of gifts, an unreplicated radius of influence, and within that radius, be it as small as a family or as large as a state, we can be a transformative presence;
- that where what we want to do meets what needs to be done, that is where God wants us to be;
- that even the smallest good deed can change someone’s life;
- that it is not the honours we receive that matter, but the honour we give;
- that what counts is not how much wealth we make but how much of what we have, we share;
- that those who spend at least part of their lives in service of others are the most fulfilled and happiest people I know;
- that there is no greater gift we can give our children than to let them see us sacrifice something for the sake of an ideal;
- that we honour the world God created and called good by searching for and praising the good in others and the world;
- that each day is a question asked by God to us;
- that each situation in which we find ourselves did not happen by accident: we are here, now, in this place, among these people, in
- these circumstances, so that we can do the act or say the word that will heal one of the fractures of the world;
- that few are the days when we cannot make some difference to the lives of others;
- that virtue does not have to be conspicuous to win respect;
- that those who give to others are the closest we come to meeting the divine presence in this short life on earth;
- that the best way of receiving a blessing is to be a blessing;
and that if we listen carefully enough”and listening is an art that requires long training and much humility”we will hear the voice of God in the human heart telling us that there is work to do…”
(Extracted from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, ‘To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility’. The author is a noted Jewish scholar from the UK)
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