Unexpected kindness in the bagging area
FIDDLING with my phone in the supermarket check-out queue, I caught the eye of the woman next to me.
“New phone,” I explained as I stood, purse-less and anxious, the only means of paying for my shopping contained on an app I couldn’t get to work.
“Don’t worry,” she smiled. “I’ll buy it for you.”
Reader, I know it’s rude to stare but I couldn’t help it. The sum in question wasn’t a fortune but why would she do that? Why would a complete stranger pay for my shopping?
The answer, I guess, is that she was a good person and random acts of kindness came easily to her.
In the end my phone decided to co-operate but I left the shop feeling both uplifted and vaguely ashamed of my rather cynical response to the woman’s freelygiven loveliness.
I was reflecting on this when I read about a recent study by American researchers who found those who regularly go to religious services are 27% less likely to die early than those who don’t.
Now, this could be due to the fact that church-goers generally drink less than others and are less likely to smoke – always better for your health than a rock and roll lifestyle.
In addition, folk who trot off to St Simon’s every Sunday are apparently also less sedentary – perhaps it’s all the standing up and sitting down involved in worship.
One thing these boffins didn’t take into account of course is the God factor.
It might just be Our Lord likes those who drop into his house on a regular basis more than the heathens who stroll on by and grants his fans a few extra years as a thank you.
Anyway, despite this being a study from across the Pond, if I was the Church of England I would be getting onto that message pronto. Instead of notices about jumble sales and parish meetings I’d be putting up posters that say ‘Come to church and add years to your life’.
There is, however, something which doesn’t quite sit right here and it’s this: some of the kindest, most compassionate, most Godly people I have ever met never set foot inside a church.
They didn’t own a hymn book, their knees never rested on a hassock. They just did good things quietly, without fuss or favour or even a rousing verse of Jerusalem.
Equally I have encountered apparent pillars of the church who turned out to be the sort of folk you’d avoid getting into a lift with; people who in more Biblical times, God may have smote as a result of their deeds.
Someone once told me that their definition of being Christian is doing good things when nobody is watching and not telling anyone about it – whether that’s inside or outside of a religious building.
I have no idea if the woman who offered to buy my shopping is a churchgoer.
But if anyone deserves a 27% longer life it’s her and those like her.