are we still doing this?

I just got yet another feel-good, warmfuzzy chain email. Some sappy story about helping the needy. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping the needy, being God to others, smiling when someone needs a smile. That part is great. When I have to keep scrolling to make a wish and pass it on to 22 people for my wish to come true the next day, that's where I get cynical. We just had this lovely story about how God works through people, then in the same pretty font it says if you don't pass it on you have no friends and thus basically are a bad person. I'm sorry, I don't recall God ever promising magic tricks and the granting of wishes for doing a good deed, much less passing on an email that probably has half a grain of truth to it. If some of us spent as much time and care actually doing nice things for people rather than forwarding chain emails, the world might half resemble the stories in those emails.
In James (2:15-16 NASB) it says, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"
Maybe inserting Scripture is a bit much. Or maybe, rather than cluttering people's inboxes with conditional words of cheer and good news, we could go out and actually do some of these things, which is much more profitable for all of us. At least, if you have a really good story to share, don't end it with making a wish and requiring it be passed on or 'you aren't really my friend'.