Finding Faith ... in my coffee buddy helping me appreciate 'tikkun olam'

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Dec. 15, 2023.

The Rev. Devlyn Brooks at his home church, Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn.

By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks

Isn’t it wonderful the positive influence that the smallest act of kindness and/or generosity can have?

Once you’ve received such kindness or generosity, you feel honor bound to pass along a similar act to someone else, creating this forward-moving chain reaction growing humanity’s collective heart and demonstrating we all are woven into the same fabric of creation.

There is plenty of scriptural motivation to live in such a manner, but I think my favorite in this instance is 1 John 3:18: “Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”

Every Sunday I stop at the same gas station to pick up a coffee before heading to church. Same time, same routine. … And like clockwork, I often bump into a gentleman who shares a similar schedule as to when he picks up his Sunday morning coffee.

I don’t know if he recognizes me yet, but I can’t miss him! He wears a distinctive leather jacket and is always formally dressed. This past Sunday he had on a wonderful Christmas tie! … And as I stood behind him in line, I wondered to myself: “Now just where are you off to, sir, dressed in such finery at 6 o’clock in the morning!”

Interrupting my reverie, however, the gentleman turned to me, went beyond our usual verbal niceties, stretched out his arm with a $2 bill in his hand and said: “Each week I give one of these out to someone random. This week it is you. Blessings.”

I stammered out with surprise, “Thank you” and “Blessings to you as well,” before I was called to my own teller. … And just like that, the moment was over. … A short and lovely interaction that has poignantly stuck with me.

However, while brief, the interaction has shaped my actions throughout this week. In moments when I haven’t felt so charitable to my fellow man, I remember this gentleman's kindness, and it has softened me. And in other moments when I’ve felt the urge to be selfish, this stranger’s generosity opened my heart. … Because of his one small act, I’ve been encouraged to be a better person to all of my neighbors whom I’ve come across for a full week!

I learned this week that in mystical Judaism there is a teaching known as “tikkun olam,” or repairing of the world. And it is achieved through “chesed,” meaning unbound loving kindness, and “tzedakah,” or charitable giving.

There was divine influence in me stumbling across this lovely Jewish concept in the days following this stranger’s “chesed” and “tzedakah” in my local gas station. I know there is. After all, we see that which we seek.

I am grateful to my early morning Sunday coffee buddy who moved me to a greater appreciation of “tikkun olam,” and he inspires me to make him proud. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He also works for Forum Communications Co. He can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com for comments and story ideas.