Random Thoughts: Shades of Good

I think many people romanticize "The Grand Gesture."

The term is probably most used in regards romance. The pursuer would complete or give up something of extraordinary cost or meaning for their loved one to see just how much they're loved.

Today, I'm talking about it in terms of an act of giving or charity. It could be someone leaving a struggling waiter a massive tip. It could be buying a car for the man who walked to work for hours each day for years. Or maybe the mother who swoops in to adopt a child and turn their life around. People love their grand gestures.

I think part of that comes with the recognition they get. 

Grand gestures are a way to show love, because there is a cost. If there is no cost to the gesture (whether time, money, or opportunity) then it is not grand. The cost is directly proportional to the meaningfulness of it. 

But with that grand gesture also can come recognition. Glory. Social media likes and shares. And many of the stories I see repeated the most either show an instant difference made by the gesture or they have the benefit of time to turn a long-road into a short paragraph or a "before and after" comparison.

I'm not saying that grand gestures are bad. 

I am saying that the small, consistent good gestures are often undervalued. The costs paid over time without recognition or reward. The daily checking in with a coworker about their family. Being kind to the grump. Picking up a mess that you didn't make even when no one will see it or know. The crossing guard who waves and smiles each day at students even when they're facing their own challenges. 

The cost can be smaller, but not always. The reward is often unseen or far off and recognition or accolades won't be forthcoming. But those consistent small acts can build up into changing the lives or yourself and others. Some even turn into the "grand gestures" people talk about as years of faithfulness become a few paragraphs or a short story to tell. Many, and possibly the greatest, will never be noticed or mentioned by any save God on the other side of eternity. 

It's something I think about.

Again, I'm not saying that grand gestures are bad. I fantasize about doing them myself. I bravely (and wisely) say the right words at the right time or give them what they need at just the right time and change some student's life. Then in that fantasy I bask in the moment knowing I made a true difference....but that's not usually the way works. 

Nor should it be. Doing a good deed for recognition may still help someone, but it misses the point. And usually a grand gesture starts something, but it's the continued faithfulness to see a process through past the unrewarding and costly moments that reaches the end. 

"The end of the matter is more important than the beginning, and patience is better than pride." Ecclesiastes 7:8 NIV

So yeah. The "Grand Gesture" vs the "consistently faithful." It's not unlike the tortoise and the hair fable. Food for thought.

Then there's also "the Domino" where one act (intended or not) triggers a chain of events that pay it forward, "the Earned Reward" where a disciplined approach pays off and "The Miracle" that only God can do.