‘Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ Matthew 18:33 ESV1
Read Matthew 18:21-35
Pay It Forward is an American film from the year 2000 written by Catherine Ryan Hyde, directed by Mimi Leder, and starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment. It is the fictional story of a Social Studies teacher who gives his class an assignment to come up with an idea to change the world for the better. The movie describes what happens when one student creates a plan for a goodwill movement which he calls, “Paying it Forward.” Pay it forward has since become an expression for the honoring and repaying of good deeds by passing on acts of kindness to others instead of the original altruist. This idea has, among other things, led to long lines at restaurants and coffee shop drive-throughs with person after person paying for the order of the car behind him or her. This concept has sparked an organization, The Pay It Forward Movement and Foundation, and a day of recognition, The International Pay It Forward Day. Though there may be social pressure to perform such acts of kindness, paying it forward is an optional activity—except in one instance.