get packing!

• I’m standing in line at the Supermarket checkout. My turn comes, and my items roll on up to the scanner. “Do you need help with your packing, Sir?” says the supermarket cashier as I stand at the checkout. “No thanks”, I mumble. Inside, I'm chuntering “I’m quite capable of putting these items in my own bag”, but of course, I'm far too polite to say out loud.
  
  
• The next day, I’m in the supermarket again. There’s young girls and lads stationed, ready and poised at the end of every checkout. “What’s going on?” I think, as once again, I roll on up to the cashier. “Do you need help with your packing, Sir?” says a young girl smiling at me as she opens two or three plastic bags with the lightening quick speed of a cowboy drawing his gun. “We’re doing it for charity. We’re raising money. Any spare change would be greatly appreciated...”  
  
  
• The cashier hands me back my change, and I cannot possibly put it back in my pocket now, as my bag packer rattles their bucket, letting me know she’s still there.
  
  
• I walk off, quietly stunned. What an amazing way to get peoples’ attention - doing something kind and in return getting them to invest in charities which help other people. My mind’s buzzing now. “What if Revolutionaries stood at the end of each checkout and packed peoples’ shopping for free?” They’d be no agenda. They’d simply do it out of love! In turn, shoppers would be blessed with simple, yet radical kindness.
  
  
• It doesn’t have to be a supermarket, but why don’t you and your mates find a way in which to bless people this week with a simple, practical and helpful act of kindness? You could slip in a flyer about your church into their shopping, or simply have something prepared to say back to shoppers if they ask why you’re doing it - a phrase that just nails your colours to the mast, explaining the reason behind the kindness. Go for it! Get creative and then just do it! People always respond to kindness, especially when there’s no strings attached.