Barb alerted me to this grave marker in a church cemetery downtown. Rebecca Wright Shand spent eighty-eight years on this earth, and at her passing they summed up her life with this epitaph: “rich in good works.” She apparently never married, as she bears the last name of her father (next to whom she is buried), who was the long-time pastor of the church. Evidently she just gave herself to the practice of good deeds.

We’ve seen the term “good works” or “good deeds” crop up a number of times in the pastoral letters. In just the last seventeen verses of Titus, Paul says we whom Christ has redeemed are to be “zealous for good deeds,” “ready for every good deed,” “careful to engage in good deeds,” and must “learn to engage in good deeds.”

Elsewhere in the pastorals, Christ-followers who are rich are to learn to be “rich in good deeds.” Christian women are to clothe themselves with “good deeds,” and Christian widows are to have “a reputation for good deeds.”

Paul wrote in Ephesians that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” and that God planned beforehand that we would “do good works.”

Jesus was explicit: “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We are right to forcefully resist the idea of salvation by good deeds. But are we just as diligent to respond to our glorious salvation by being zealous for good deeds? rich in good deeds? ready for every good deed?

And here’s a personal hang-up I have. I have this [mistaken] notion that I somehow need to tie my good deeds to a verbal testimony about Jesus. No, I just need to be careful to engage in good deeds and trust God for the opportunity to speak if and when He brings it. Too often I think I force it.

Good deeds. A kind gesture. A smile. A generous tip. A note of encouragement. Letting someone go ahead of me. Serving. With a smile. Helping. Giving time. Listening. To that talker. Being patient. With a slow-poke. Deflecting a sharp remark. A phone call to cheer someone up.

Let’s be rich in good deeds!