In the movie Pay It Forward, a teacher, Mr. Simonet asks the kids how often they think about the world outside of their town. (Not much.) He stumps them by asking, "What does the world expect of you?" Trevor responds, "Nothing." Mr. Simonet agrees, but challenges the class to prepare for the day when they’ll grow up, leave their town, and enter the world. To help them broaden their horizons, he gives them an extra credit assignment to help change the world. The students complain about how difficult it is, but Mr. Simonet counters that it’s "possible." A seventh-grader comes up with a simple idea to change the world—help people who can’t help themselves, and charge them with helping three other people in the future. Trevor explains to his class how to "pay it forward." He'll do good deeds that will change the lives of three people. Those three will help three others. In theory, people will continue to "pay it forward" and improve the lives of millions. In one of the scenes, Jerry, a homeless drug addict, sees a woman preparing to jump off a bridge. He pleads with her to come down, but she insists that he won’t understand her troubles and her life’s not worth saving anyway. Jerry disagrees and asks her to have coffee with him. By doing that, she will actually save his life.

The bottom line is, it’s hard to help other people when you can only focus on yourself. Although it’s debatable who’s in worse shape sometimes, the truth rings clear—helping others will bring healing to our own lives. There’s always someone worse off, so we have to open our eyes to those who are struggling and give them a hand. If we display a "pay it forward" attitude by helping those who can't help themselves, the world would be transformed. “Unfortunately, too often, we miss out on ordinary opportunities for daily service (Bryan Belknap)”. Like a previous daily bread reading, this story also reminds us of the paralyzed man who was healed by Jesus. The afflicted man's friends cared enough about him to bring him what he needed, a meeting with the Savior (Luke 5:17-26).

I Challenge you to take this simple principle to heart and ask God to show you how to help out and exhibit Christ's love with some actions. There are a lot of youth in need that were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Think of some ways you and your friends can help. Maybe you can team up with youth from your school and do a flea market with some old clothes, shoes, or video games. Maybe you can get some adults to buy your group some soap and you can do a car wash and send the donations to the young Hurricane survivors. Take some time out of one of your Saturdays and share the gospel by showing the love of Christ. You never know what might happen when you lend a helping hand. Need another example? Read John 6:5-13 about the boy who had five small loaves and two small fish. The point is, God can take your little and turn it into a lot. Remember, real love puts actions to good intentions.

To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend. — Job 6:14. (NIV)