I gave blood this week; I state this as a fact, and not to brag. I only came to blood donation in my forties, and wish now I had discovered it earlier. I stand in awe of a lady at church in her 80s, I think, who has given over 100 pints of blood. Good on her!
It's not something that features 'up front' in my life, nor, I imagine, in the lives of the thousands of blood donors who regularly go three times a year for an hour or so at a church hall or working men's club and depart a little lighter having given a pint of blood. It remains an aspiration with me to donate three times in a year, but my annual trip as a trustee of an orphanage, to Kenya, means that the anti-malarial tablets I have to take, prevent my donating for six months after I return to the UK.
So even in these days characterised by so much concern for the self, there is still to be found a great deal of altruism. But it doesn't vaunt itself, so we are never sure how much good is being done, quietly, unobtrusively, without fuss.But it is safe to say that churchgoers, Christians, people of the faith, according to the surveys which research this stuff, are always in the vanguard of altruistic activity.
Imagine what would not be done, how the store of goodness would be depleted, and that of indifference or evil would rise, if these folk, and the faith that propels them, were to disappear. The rumour of God being alive and active still counts for something.
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