I attended a get-together with some people I had pastored 40 years ago when they were in their teens. Several men said their most vivid memories centered around the snowball fights we had after our midweek Bible class. I was glad that at least a few remembered some of the things I had said.

One man reminded me that I once told him to be a "good-for-nothing person." We had been discussing Matthew 5:43-48 when he piped up, "I'm through going out of my way to be nice to the old people who live next door. I mowed part of their lawn one evening, but the very next day he yelled at me when I ran into his yard to get a football that got away from me. What good do you get from being nice to a person like that?"

In answer to his question, I said, "Jesus wants you to be a good-for-nothing person." He grinned and replied, "I've been called that before." But he got the point.

Being a "good-for-nothing person" by repeatedly going out of our way to be nice to someone who doesn't return even a smile of appreciation isn't easy. But that is what Jesus expects from us. And it becomes easier when we remember His continued goodness in spite of our selfishness and ungratefulness.  — Herbert Vander Lugt