DECEMBER 11, 2024
Topic: “ALTRUISM”
Text: JOHN 15.3
Memory Verse: ““You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” – John 15:3.
Altruism is any act of goodness that we do spontaneously. It is one we are not obliged to perform, yet we do. These acts can place us in mortal danger and they are not necessarily done for our relatives or loved ones.
Mammodou Gassama, an illegal Malian immigrant in France found himself walking down the road in Paris on 26th May 2018, when he saw a toddler dangling from a balcony, four storeys up on a high-rise building. He climbed up the side of the building and rescued the child. After his brave act, he was dubbed the ‘Spiderman’ of Paris after the cartoon/movie character who scales difficult surfaces and buildings with aid of a spider web!
Incidentally, the young man received French citizenship soon afterwards and a job in the fire department! Surely, when the young man started his climb on the side of the building, he was not calculating anything except the young child’s safety. He did not think about being exposed as an illegal immigrant or possible deportation. It was a purely altruistic act.
Some scientists believe that altruism is a ‘primitive’ human response tied to some instinct to preserve the human race. Perhaps. Could it be, though, that just as God has left every human with the ability to discern good and evil in the human conscience and given us a yearning for eternity; He has also given us a disposition to love and care for one another?
Can you and I choose to extend love without exception today? Can we imitate God today by praying for someone who will never know about it? Can you and I do good out of the spotlight? Without fanfare or announcement? Let us give with one hand today, without the other hand knowing, as Jesus recommends (Matt. 6.3).
PRAYER: Father in Heaven, my very life breath comes from you. Stop my lips from boasting, as you are the Source of all goodness. Thank you for being God, in Jesus’ name, Amen.