If you want to be holy, be kind. ~Frederick Buechner
1. She was kind.
A Sunday School class of chatty fourth graders, we were not an easy crowd. To my self-conscious, easily shamed mind, she never failed. Though her methods were corny and her coolness factor low, her kindness won me.
Long into my adulthood she wrote to me, prayed for me, hugged me when I came home. I love Jesus today because she was kind, when kindness was not always easy.
2. He needed stitches.
The doctor wrapped my two-year old son in a tiny white straight-jacket, my job was to keep his head still. His eyes were huge, uncertain–his own mother wouldn’t rescue him from the sharp needle hovering above. He was betrayed in his misery.
But the doctor knew his craft. His gentle voice soothed our way through the dreaded procedure. A sticker and lollipop later, my son had learned that kindness sometimes comes in disguise.
3. I was frustrated.
My productive morning ended with the telephone’s shrill ring. In response to my clenched words, I was offered a great deal on a product I didn’t need, by a person I’ve never met. I’ll never ease the burdens he carried–perhaps unpaid bills, a strained relationship, the longing for just one word of kindness at the end of his memorized pitch.
Because I was not kind.
God Is Kind
Isaiah 42:3. Jesus fulfilled the prophet’s prediction, a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
How easy it is to break a reed already bent. How unthinkingly we lick our fingers to extinguish a flame almost out. Those who need kindness the most are the ones least likely to receive it.
The bruising blows, the sudden puff of calamity or shame–none of us escapes. But the un-breaking, un-quenching example of Jesus proclaims the power of kindness to save.
Embrace The Kindness Of God
Kindness is not sentiment, an emotion of the moment. Kindness refers to a habit, a daily practice of bandaging reeds and refusing to snuff out even the smokiest of flames.
Kindness is love in action and in restraint, and never fails to leave its mark.
I have wept in the night
At the shortness of sight
That to others’ needs made me blind.
But I never have yet
Had a tinge of regret
For being a little too kind.
~ Unknown
Where have you noticed kindness? Is there a daily practice you’ve found helpful?
This is post three of our Lent To Love: A Return to the Source series on 1 Corinthians 13. Join us on the journey to Easter!
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