Acts 10:38 says, "See how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good." He just got up every day and did good. Everywhere he went, even though he had a purpose and he was headed somewhere, he let himself be interrupted by the needs of people. So often we study the steps of Jesus. Maybe we need to study the stops of Jesus. The things that he stopped for, the things that interrupted his plan, where he would alter his plan and help somebody here and there.

Good relationships require a lot of hard work, education, and willingness to meet each other's needs.

The things we do to serve one another are the things that bind us together.

If we are truly listeners and givers, we will try to help others receive what they need and be a blessing to them. But often our problem is that we spend far too much time trying to bless ourselves and not nearly enough time trying to bless someone else. Godly

If we are not living our lives to make someone else's better, than we are not really living at all.

I have now learned that we do not even know what "happy" is until we forget about ourselves, start focusing on others, and become generous givers.

Real love has little to do with gooey emotions and goose bumps; it has everything to do with the choices we make about the way we treat people. Real love is not theory or talk; it is action. It is a decision concerning the way we behave in our relationships with other people. Real love meets needs even when sacrifice is required in order to do so.

The alternative to the free market consumer culture is a set of covenants that supports neighborly disciplines, rather than market disciplines, as a producer of culture. These non-market disciplines have to do with the common good and abundance as opposed to self-interest and scarcity. This neighborly culture is held together by its depth of relatedness, its capacity to hold mystery, its willingness to stretch time and endure silence.

I think we must be careful about too easily accepting, or being too easily grateful for, sacrifices made by others, especially if we have made none ourselves.

Are you unhappy? Do you feel lost and lacking in purpose? Focus on the needs of others and serve as Jesus did.

Compassion: she suffered with. Companion: she broke bread with. Conspiracy: she breathed with. Conscience: she knew with. And finally, consistent with this ethic of imitation.

Every man should be content to mind his own business.