James 2:8; “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

One cold winter’s night, an elderly couple arrived at a town in the U.S thinking they’d have no roblems finding a hotel room for the night. To their dismay a major convention was on and all rooms across the city were booked out. After hours of searching, they stumbled into the lobby of a small hotel exhausted and cold. The clerk apologised and said like all the other hotel rooms in the city every oom in his hotel was also booked.

The clerk could see how exhausted this elderly couple were and after some thought, said, “I’m prepared to give you my room if that’s any help,” after some

hesitation the couple agreed to stay in the staff room. The following morning, after breakfast, the elderly couple asked a member of staff to go and find the Hotel Clerk who had dealt so kindly in giving up his room for them. The clerk whose name was George C Boult came to see the couple and the elderly gentleman said to George, “You’re the kind of man who should be managing the best hotel in the U.S, someday I’ll build you one.” The clerk smiled back politely, however, a few

years later the clerk received a letter from the elderly man, recalling that cold winters night, asking George to come to New York.

George Boult arrived in New York and his host took him to see a magnificent new building. “That, said the man, is the hotel I have built for you to manage.” The elderly man was William Waldorf-Astoria, and the hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria. This all started because of a simple act of kindness, from a clerk who had no hidden agenda except to help this couple.

One day God will judge us not on our biblical knowledge but on our acts of kindness, our actions, after all a faith that doesn’t make a difference, that doesn’t love and help others is meaningless. Acts of kindness are usually not about doing great things, but about doing small things with great love.

Pastor Dave Harrison