Trading Good for Bad

Its interesting how people who do good are often not rewarded for their good deeds. Recently I heard about two brothers who were close but lived different lives. One was a normal guy who worked the average job and enjoyed a low key lifestyle. The other brother who was older was a comedian, lived his life on a cruise ship as a stand-up comic always in the the spot light. Unfortunately, the younger brother became ill with a liver disease that was slowly killing him. Fortunately for him though, this type of disease could be easily healed with a piece of another person's healthy liver added to his, and his older brother had a healthy enough liver to accommodate his need. They both went into surgery and the ill, younger brother came out happy and healthier than before. Exciting and great news. But the older brother didn't come out looking nearly as well as the other brother. In fact, now the older brother was dying. It came to a point that the older brother now needed another surgery to save him from death. It was close, but he was able to make it through alive. For his gift of giving a piece of his liver to his younger brother, he was given a potentially life taking illness from the surgery, and though his life was spared he ended up coming closer to death than his brother ever was.

In a world where good deeds don't seem to come around often to those who give them its easy to be discouraged. Its legally safer for "Good Samaritans" to literally ignore situations because there are so many accounts of people doing the right thing morally and ethically but are sued because they helped incorrectly, or their aid wasn't desired, or their willingness to be there for someone backfires because some lawyer finds a way to show that had the Good Samaritan not been there the affects of the victim would have been less. Interesting right?

I guess that is why twice in the New Testament after Christ's death Paul says to the church (Galatians 6.9; 2 Thess. 3.13) not to become tired, distressed or weary of doing what is right, good and well meaning. It is so easy to lose focus on doing good because good doesn't always come back around fast enough, but when it does it makes what we did so long ago seem completely worth it.