The expression “pay it forward” is used to describe the concept of repaying a good deed done to you by doing something kind for someone else rather than for the person who was kind to you.  “Paying if forward” rather than “paying it back.”

Years back, the movie Pay it Forward showed the life of a young boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) who basically came up with a scheme to change the world by beginning a domino effect of good acts done to others whose only responsibility was to then “pay it forward.”

Others in history captured the same idea. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, said when lending some money to a friend in need:

“I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you. When you … meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro’ many hands, before it meets with a knave  that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.”

Well, all you need to do is read back a few posts to see that this idea—paying it forward—was not first considered by Ben. It’s a divine idea and was modeled by Jesus: passing along the goodness of God to others and preparing them to be recipients and conduits of the good news He lived out, died to secure, and was raised from the dead to prove.

Are there blessings you’ve received that you could pass along to others? Who is someone in the pathway of your life who could use a word, a hand, or a few dollars, or a message of good news that has the fingerprints of God on it?