Paying it forward
“Tell me something good,” I said to my friend, Ric Cochran, afternoon radio personality on V100. The many delays involved with our home purchase had me down in the dumps, and I needed something positive to get me over the hump.
Ric didn’t even pause a half-second before responding. “I have something that’s beyond good,” he said. “Something absolutely amazing happened to me.”
Ric then proceeded to explain how he’d been talking to his friend, Pastor Dennis Johnson of the Baptist Temple, about his long-time dream of someday traveling to Ireland. Pastor Johnson caught Ric’s enthusiasm for Ireland and decided it would be the ideal destination for a group trip, so not long after their talk, the pastor began arranging the excursion.
Pastor Johnson updated Ric as the trip began to come together, but Ric said once he heard the price, he knew there was no way he could go. As the slots for the trip began to fill up, the pastor approached Ric to ask if he should still hold him a spot. Even knowing he couldn’t afford it, Ric said he still found it hard to say, “You don’t need to save me a seat.”
After he did, the pastor excused himself for a few minutes. When he returned, he told Ric, “You’re going. It’s been taken care of.”
It turns out that two members of the church had unexpectedly come into money and have been having a good time doing special things like this.
“They heard how much this trip would mean to me and they wanted me to have it. They’re sharing their windfall with others. Not just me, but with many people. That’s what grace is about.”
Ric said he went to Hallmark and stood for ages looking at cards, but none seemed good enough.
“How do you thank someone adequately for something like that?” asked Ric.
I knew just what he meant. A few months ago, I wrote about my blind friend, Becky Conrad, who was diagnosed in January with lymphatic cancer of the brain. In the article, I mentioned that I was trying to get Becky a laptop computer so she could write and access email during her many extended hospital stays for chemotherapy.
I didn’t expect it would be difficult to find a company willing to donate a computer, but after dozens of calls, I had nothing. I approached the newspaper’s computer staff hoping one of them might have an idea or some connection. One—Jenny Lilly—called and told me she thought she might have something. A few days later, she called me back to her office. There sat a brand new laptop computer, complete with wireless Internet and a fancy carrying case. Every bell and whistle Becky could ever imagine.
When I asked where it came from, Jenny admitted that she and her friend Lou Ann Johnson had pooled their own money to buy it.
For a woman they’ve never met.
“It felt nice to be able to do something like that for someone.” Jenny said casually. “We’re just paying it forward,”
Every time I see Jenny at work, I’m reminded of her and her friend’s generosity and feel overwhelmed by it all over again, and Becky has told me she feels the gratitude she’s expressed to them could never come close to how she truly feels.
So, like Ric asked, how do you adequately say thank you for something like that?
I think the only way is by paying it forward. By doing something for someone else to honor the people who helped you.
I’ve read that every act of kindness should create a ripple with no end. And that’s something that Ric, Becky, and I all hope we can do.
