Let each man think himself an act of God, his mind and thought, his life a breath of God; and let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds, to show the most of Heaven he hath in him.  ~Phillip James Bailey

I saw the Two for $2.00 deal at the drive through and said to myself; “Great! I can get a quick, cheap breakfast and still make it to work on time.”  I drank my coffee and ate the biscuit while I drove in a hurry to get to work.  After listening to my morning podcast, I prayed all the way to work.  I prayed for everything and anything under the sun (not hard to do when you have an hour commute).

I remember praying for compassion; for God to help me remember that I am an extension of His love here on earth.  I felt so good about my prayer time, that when I arrived, I saw a homeless man looking through a garbage can for food, and I gave him my other sandwich.  It wasn’t hard for me to do that this time, but I have to admit, I don’t always find it so easy to do good for others.

I recently attended *The Do Good Experience in Atlanta.  It is an annual event where students are “given the hands-on opportunity to impact their community through local volunteer and service opportunities while being inspired through social influencers and worship”(Do God Experience). I was so inspired!  I love the idea that we can be shown a better way to serve by actually serving, rather than just talking about it. Sometimes we waste so much precious time talking and dreaming about what we would like to do to make this world better, when all along the needs are right outside our door.

I’ve found that sometimes we don’t serve because we either lack confidence or information, or perhaps because we think it requires we give money we don’t have.  Here are a few tips to help us get out there and do good deeds for someone besides ourselves:

• Read. Philippians 4:13 (AMP): ¹³I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who ^[a]infuses inner strength into me; I am ^[b]self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].
• Pray. for God to open your eyes to the needs around you.  Some needs are so obvious; you don’t even have to pray.
• Ask.  Google, facebook, twitter, etc. are good ways to find out what the needs are in your community and/or around the world.  You can also ask your church leaders, community leaders, school leaders, etc. about ways to get involved.
• Do. Get up, get out and do something about the needs around you.
• Invite. Ask others to join you.

Find broken. Do good. ~Vince Hungate, The Do Good Experience

*If you’d like to contact Vince Hungate at The Do Good Experience go to: www.dogoodexperience.comand check out their website which is loaded with great information and opportunities to serve your community.  You can also follow them on twitter @dogoodexp and Facebook/DoGood Experience.