What is a great thing?

Recently I was told by a third party that I had done a great thing in the past week. Which threw me a little bit, as apart from having a rather hectic first week back at work after the holidays, I was not aware of having done anything remotely out of the ordinary, let alone any ”Great thing”.

When I was told that the great thing that I had done was encouraging someone by a phone call during the week, (to enquire as to their health after a minor eye incident,) I was very surprised by this, as I had not actually spoken to either of them on the phone as they were not home. I simply left a message as to my intention for the call on the Answering Service, meaning to ring back later, which I never did.

I was even more surprised by this comment by the third party, as I had just previously spoken personally to these people and they didn’t even acknowledge to me that they had even received the message. Of course I know now they must have, otherwise they third party would not have known about my attempted phone call.

It just goes to show that you never can tell how other people will respond to even the smallest gesture on your part. Not only had I not followed through with a follow up phone call, which had been my intention, when I failed to make direct contact the first time, but even now I still think I did nothing extraordinary. In fact as I am the Pastoral Deacon, a phone call should have been the least that they should have expected from Me. I would have thought that a miserly phone call would have been a valid reason to complain about, rather than compliment.

It just goes to show how sometimes, even just the minutest of actions on our part, can bring about a response. Sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Here I wish to focus on the positive side and wonder what other “great thing” I can do for someone else this week?

What about you? Is there someone who you can reach out to even if just via the phone, or even a smile? Don’t worry whether you get a response from them or from a third party, but do what you can to encourage others, no matter how small or minor you may think your action is.

So, what “great thing” will you do this week for someone?