Author: Jet Tahimic

In preparation for lent, my friends and I decided to do random acts of kindness (commonly known in the community as RAK). We’re all excited as we prepare for it. Our plan was to give flowers to random people with a love note attached on it. Excitement started to fill our hearts the night before our RAK day. We gathered in one of our friends’ house and preparsed those sweet notes… and of course we tried to be as sweet and loving and sincere (even though some of the words are from the internet, :p) as we could be as wrote those words on fancy flowery sticky notes. That night was really fun!

Of course the best part was the RAK itself… our goal was simply to make people smile. We grabbed fresh roses from Safeway and handed them into random people at  random places – coffee shop, business office, parking lot, bus stop, drive thru (which became the most popular for us, more convenient I guess!), toboganning park, and even caught some people in residential area. And as expected we got different reactions from people. They would scream, they’re wide eyed, some were speechless… We don’t know what they’re thinking, but we are sure of one thing: they are happy. So we all can say: Mission accomplished! They are happy, but we are happier.

A couple of weeks after that, I just finished laundry and was about to leave the shop when a lady knocked at my car. I opened the window and right there I found out she’s drunk and she could barely talk. She said she’s lost and doesn’t know her way home. She told me her address but said I am not familiar with the area (I said that with all honesty though) and she can just ask anyone inside the laundry shop. It seems she didn’t hear what I said and for the second time she asked me again if I know the way to her place. So I repeated my answer and deep inside me I was wishing she would walk away… because I was scared. Then she left. I felt safe. I was thankful. I was relieved… until I got home.  I felt guilty, thinking about the woman and hoping she’s safe. I could have done something more than telling her to ask the people in the shop. I could have googled her address and take her home. I could have called some help if I am scared to do it alone. I felt so ashamed.

And then it came back to me… all the “kindness” that we did at RAK. All our excitements and eagerness were there to do our RAK – because we’re prepared, because there’s four of us, because we kinda know what to expect. But unfortunately that’s not how the game of Christianity is played.

I am not saying that RAK is just for fun or its not right, people would kill me. I would definitely do that again when I got a chance. But I think God expects more from us. 2 Peter 3:10 says “The Lord will come like a thief in the night”. The Lord presents himself in our daily encounter with people, usually at times we do not expect. Jesus shows Himself to us through random situations, through random people, at random places. When this happens, are we prepared with our random acts of kindness? Let’s not just RAK people, let’s RAK the Lord! 🙂 #jet

Last Monday I was driving to work, it was a rush hour and I was one of those who try to beat the clock. It’s Monday, what do you expect??? I was driving fast but tried to keep my limit (of course taking advantage over speeding tolerance, which I love! :p). Then suddenly the driver in front of me stepped on his break and slowed down – on a green light. And I figured out why: On that intersection is a sign: PHOTO ENFORCED.

In Manitoba where there is 10kph over speeding tolerance, most drivers go beyond the speed limit, and then slow down when they know they’re passing by a road camera. For those who know my driving, I know what you think; I am guilty of this too. Come on, all the drivers are! 🙂

We just love to run fast, and then slow down when we know we are being “watched”. Sometimes people are not aware and will just be surprised by that 1/40,000sec flash (I am exaggerating). It’s a pain in the pocket, I know, but there are just some lessons that we need to learn the hard way.

Oftentimes, this busy world requires us to move faster and tend to forget that God is watching us… watching our actions, watching our thoughts, watching our words. And we are all aware of that and still we choose to violate some rules… we become impatient, we skip our prayer time, we judge people, we hold grudge, we let our pride rule…

We choose to give in to our weaknesses. We choose to ignore God.

Take time to slow down, because unless we do, we will not see the warnings on the road. Unless we slow down, we will not hear what God tells us. We will go where we want to go, do things our own way not seeing the warnings God is presenting to us. And sometimes God has to use His “flash” to get our attention. He takes photo of us so we can evidently see how fast or how far we’ve gone and what we’ve done wrong. He has to put us in different situations, sometimes painful situations that don’t just let us slow down, but have us take a full stop.

Friends, don’t learn things the hard way. Follow God’s directions. He is watching, twenty four hours. #jet 🙂