But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. - Galatians 5:22
Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the
meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets. — Matthew
7:12
Today we move to the
Spirit-produced fruit of kindness. The
encouragement to be kind is part of virtually every religious and ethical
system in history. Most religious and
ethical systems have some form of the Golden Rule (Jesus”s version is above) in
their teachings. And yet kindness seems
to so often escape us. These days, there
seems to be a shortage of kindness.
A couple of times during the course
of my ministry, I have had to respond to the tragedy of someone taking their
own life. While the factors of what
would cause someone to take their own life can’t really be known for sure, one
of the recent environmental factors in many cases is “cyber-bullying,” a
practice that Oxford Dictionary defines as “the use of electronic communication
to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or
threatening nature.” To state the obvious, this practice, which is rampant on
social media, points out a fundamental lack of kindness.
My guess is that most of us reading
this try not to be unkind. But I want to
push you (and myself) a bit because Jesus’s teaching is NOT to avoid being
unkind. His teaching is to actively
spread kindness. When we do this, it is
VERY powerful. In fact, I am aware of so
many instances when one perfectly timed act of kindness actually stopped a person
from taking their own life. Kindness
saves lives! And yet, you and I too often
withhold it. I say withhold because the
kindness is within us. We do choose to
be kind on occasion. The times we are
not kind are not because we are not able to do so. We withhold kindness.
We will address some of the reasons
why we withhold simple kindness next time, but I want to close today by calling
us back to the Golden Rule and the question it forces us to consider. Do you wish for people to withhold kindness
from you?
Here’s your homework today. Try to catch yourself withholding kindness
from others. You think about giving
someone a call to check on them but you decide against it. You feel a compliment rising to your lips,
but you don’t let it see the light of day.
You feel compassion for someone but don’t act on it. When you catch yourself doing this, rather
than chide yourself, ask yourself, why did I withhold this kindness? As I said, that will be the topic of
tomorrow’s edition.
Prayer: God, show us
the kindnesses that we withhold today, for we know the world needs kindness now
more than ever. Amen
Prayer Focus: Pray
for families that are dealing with the fallout of suicide, some even many years
later.
Song: If Everyone
Cared – Nickelback
This song definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I
thought the video was well done. There’s
a quote at the end that gets covered by Youtube Ads. Here it is.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
