It was a bizarre idea. A wildly impulsive good deed. Something that doesn’t happen except for maybe once or twice in a lifetime. But in smaller ways, it could be emulated in a hundred different ways as long as it is some kind of action carried out on behalf of another.

A friend and former member of an accountability group who had moved about 800 miles down the road, was in crisis. My mentor and I were concerned. He was about to make what we felt was the wrong decision, but there was no one there with him to back him up for the right one. It was Sunday night and Monday was a holiday if my memory serves me well. I’m not sure who thought of it first, but after talking with our friend and feeling helpless to do anything for him when what the situation really called for was a personal intervention, the thought entered our minds to drop everything, get in the car, and drive down there overnight and surprise him in the morning for breakfast, then turn around and drive right back. Now that may sound ridiculous, but when you consider the personal weight our friendship and commitment would convey to him, and you mix in 20 hours of teachable moments in a car — suddenly it doesn’t seem so stupid. So we did, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I can still remember the look on his face when we showed up at his door. Not to mention the opportunity to spend that much quality time with someone I admired and wanted to learn from.

The thing that makes this story so important is the action. We had an impulse to help serve someone and we acted. That’s what we can take away from this Catch. Love in action. Love that has hands and feet. I’m not going to jump in my car and drive ten hours very often, because someone needs me, but I can drive across town, or pick up the phone and call, or do something special for someone. Something that shows forethought. Something that takes some sacrifice to pull off. Something that tells someone they are important. Because, in the end, that’s what we did that weekend above all else, we let someone know how important they were to us.