Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
The Unexpected Fruit Of Kindness

The Unexpected Fruit Of Kindness

Last updated on: June 12, 2018 at 9:22 pm by Keith Giles

The Unexpected Fruit Of Kindness 2018-06-12T21:22:53+00:00 Keith Giles

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There was no way I could have anticipated how my little suggestion would explode and impact the lives of hundreds of people on the other side of the country.

It was just another meeting at work. One of our vendors wanted to hold an event with our sales team in Buffalo to promote their “Build To Order” network during the week of September 11th.

A few ideas were tossed back and forth, and then I said: “Why don’t we have our sales team build backpacks full of school supplies for low-income families?”

It was a winner. But I had no idea just how big it would be.

Weeks went by and I heard nothing. That, in itself, is not unusual. I almost never hear feedback about how these things go. It’s rare to even get a photograph after the fact. But then the news started coming back to me.

At first, it was only a comment from the vendor rep who said, “Keith, that was the single best thing I have ever seen or been part of at this company.”

Wow. I was shocked. Then came the internal email which provided photos and details which were overwhelming.

Over 400 backpacks were stuffed with supplies by hundreds of associates in less than two hours. Two schools in the Buffalo area were awarded 200 backpacks each.

Then it got really awesome.

Cisco, the vendor, donated $1,000 for every hundred backpacks we filled. So each school received a check for $2,000 in addition to the backpacks and all of the leftover supplies.

But the story wasn’t finished yet. Not by a mile.

When the principals for each school showed up to receive the backpacks they were stunned. One woman, when she saw what was waiting, burst into tears while describing how many of her students are Refugees. “Some of these kids barely have clothing and can’t afford school supplies,” she said. “This is a dream, how could they be so lucky?”

By the time she was done telling the stories of these children, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Then Cisco decided to make this an annual event. And then the Wall Street Journal did a story on it.

Best of all? Both of those schools will have funds freed up to fund other important programs that, without those checks, would have been canceled completely.

Not bad for a simple idea at the end of a conference call on a random Tuesday.

Want to know what I love most about all of this? It’s that I have been asking God to show me the fruit of my ministry for a few months now. Mostly because I’ve been feeling as if I need to do more, or be more, or serve more. Then God shows me how much He can do with the most simple and random actions we take. Even when we’re not trying to bear fruit, He can do so much with so little.

It really is just about bringing our two loaves and a fish to lay it at His feet. He is the One who does the real work. He is the One who gets the Glory.

I keep seeing the picture of someone carrying a large sack of seed to the newly plowed field and every little seed that drops off along the way is springing up, growing stronger, bearing fruit – just as He designed every seed to do.

Do you have a story like this? I’d love to hear it! Share in the comments below.

Keith Giles is the author of several books, including the forthcoming “Jesus Unbound: How the Bible Keeps Us From Hearing the Word of God”, available July 4th, 2018.

He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb”. He is the co-host of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean. He and his wife live in Orange, CA with their two sons.

Please, join me at one of these upcoming events:

*The Nonviolent Love of Christ: How Loving Our Enemies Saves The World, with Joshua Lawson and Keith Giles on Saturday, June 16 in Portsmouth Ohio. Register here>

*Crucifying Our Politics with Keith Giles on June 24 in Cleveland, OH. Register here>

BONUS: Unlock exclusive content including blog articles, short stories, music, podcasts, videos and more on my Patreon page.

Following Jesus

General Christian Topics

God's Love

Preemptive Love

Previous Post

June 9, 2018

Welcome To Post Christian America

Next Post

June 15, 2018 Behold: Our Christless Christianity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Biblicism Christian Politics Cosmic Christ Deconstruction Discipleship Dispensationalism Divine Unity Ekklesia End Time Stuff Eschatology Evergreen Following Jesus Gender General Christian Topics Gnostics God's Love Gospel of Judas Gospel of Mary Gospel of Philip Gospel of the Kingdom Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Truth Hell Historical Jesus Inner Circle Investigative Reporting Islam LGBTQ Issues Marriage Mental/Emotional Health Mystery Non-Duality Philosophy Podcast Poetry Politics Poverty Preemptive Love Prophecy Psychology Quantum Theology Racism Reconstruction Satire Sex Technology Theology Uncategorized Universalism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian denomination was founded by John and Charles Wesley?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Presbyterian Baptist Catholic Methodist

Books by This Author Books by Keith Giles

See All Titles »