海角大神

Sometimes we just need a nudge to do something that鈥檚 really good.聽

Early this month, an anonymous donor at Severna Park United Methodist Church in Maryland offered $100 bills to 100 congregants. Their charge was to look around them and see where they could brighten a dark hour. And as her hunch was that the resulting gestures would enrich both recipient and giver at Christmastime.

It was really more than a hunch. Over the summer, weighed down by the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed during the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., the donor spontaneously gave a coffee shop cashier a gift card, telling her to treat customers until it ran out. As she left, her spirits lifted.

So she shared that joy with fellow congregants, who spent the $100, and often more, on everything from having pizza with homeless individuals on the steps of a Baltimore church to paying off strangers鈥� layaway accounts. They told their pastor they took the charge particularly seriously because of its provenance. 鈥淭hat to me is good theology,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good way to think about your life, that you鈥檝e been entrusted with great gifts. And how do you turn around and use them?鈥�

My guess is more than a few will continue to ask themselves that question as the new year begins.

Now here are our five stories, showing the spirit of integrity, exploration, and conservation at work.聽