Johnhwilburn.com

Friday morning a friend called me around 8:30 with a special surprise. She had baked me a belated birthday cake! I excitedly drove to her house about a half-hour later, put the cake in the fridge, and enjoyed a piece (it was delicious) at lunchtime.

I carefully put the cake back into the fridge

but then asked myself a question….

do I really need a whole cake?

Saving it by freezing pieces in plastic bags was an option, but I didn’t trust myself not to each them all! And the truth is I’d indulged far too much in the wrong kinds of food last week already celebrating my birthday.

So I put it on a plate (along with a knife)

and handed it out to anyone who wanted a piece…and seriously, who doesn’t want a piece of cake?

The majority of the cake was actually given out to kids I work with. Eleven pieces were put into sandwich bags, and stored into the freezer (trying to make sure they were all the same size).

Watching those kids devour cake made me think of how a small thing like a piece of cake can brighten someone’s day.

We are surrounded by people who are seriously struggling. Life is hard, and Satan does his very best to discourage us.

Often the amount of discouraged people, or their level of discouragement, can overwhelm us. “How are we supposed to give them hope”? The Gospel is the only true source of hope for any of us. But we are chosen by God to reach out to others WITH the Gospel.

We can overthink how to build this relational bridge….

When usually an act of kindness does an excellent job.

Yes the deeper problems of life take Salvation, counseling, and discipleship. But having a bad day or becoming discouraged about nobody seeming to care? That can be fixed with a big piece of birthday cake!

I am so grateful for this Godly woman who gave me a special late birthday surprise.

And the chance to brighten others day with a simple act of kindness.