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Leave it better than you found it. That’s a Boy Scout slogan. I’ve never been a Boy Scout, but I’m sure I could benefit from making that a personal goal—to leave everything better than I found it— a personal goal.
I’ve talked about a leaving our jobs better than we found them, leaving our relationships and environments better than we found them and leaving our churches better than we found them.
I want to tell you about my friend, Cynthia, who definitely left a situation at her work so much better than she found it. Some years ago, she worked in a department where one coworker made it very clear that she and Cynthia could never be friends because Cynthia was African-American. It’s hard to believe that someone would actually say that, but this person said those very words to Cynthia.
Thankfully, Cynthia was able to get beyond her hurt feelings and respond appropriately to this situation. She prayed about it, and got the idea to start what she called “Project Love.” Now, she didn’t announce to her coworkers that she was starting “Project Love,” she just decided to do it. Besides being kind and considerate on a daily basis, she decided to invite each person in her department to have lunch with her as her guest. So once a week she would deliver a written invitation to a coworker, including this woman who said they could never be friends.
Well, who can refuse such an invitation? So, the two of them went to lunch, they began to get to know each other, this woman saw how wrong her attitude was and what a good friend Cynthia would be, and before long they became friends. Now this woman openly and proudly claims Cynthia as a friend, and though they no longer work together, they keep in touch.
Cynthia left that place and that relationship so much better than she found it. She could have responded with anger and bitterness, but she chose to respond in love. That’s the power that we have as believers because we have the Holy Spirit within us to enable us to do what otherwise we would find impossible to do.
I hope you’ll remember this simple slogan: Leave it better than you found it. It’s one way to show God’s love to others.
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