SURPRISED BY KINDNESS

Columns - Savannah

THE POWER OF KINDNESS

Like a calf looking at a new gate, kindness overtakes us and challenges our mental equilibrium.  We often aren’t expecting it but it is always welcome.  Even those who offer it in juxtaposition to the world's values are sometimes caught off guard.

My wife and I were teaching preschoolers in Vacation Bible School some time ago and there was one little boy named Matthew who was always seeking "attention" but the ways he chose to do so usually did not endear himself to others.  Towards the end of the week, we were working with the group at one of the VBS disciplines (bible story, crafts, recreation, etc.) when I looked up to see Matthew intently looking at me.  With a questioning expression he said "Why are you so kind?"  I don’t really recall exactly how I replied to his question but I believe I told him of the kindness Jesus showed and how he wanted each of us to be kind to others in the same way.  With that, Matthew was off and the class continued.

That encounter set me to thinking about how often when we show kindness we are surprised when someone actually notices it.  Our personal histories have too many instances when people do things to us and we write it off to human nature and people being unrepentant sinners.  We also know how we have done those same things only to later confess our guilt for having done so.  Perhaps a consistency of kindness on our part would spur more people to ask, as did my young friend Matthew, where that gift of kindness originates.  I believe it was Apostle Peter in I Peter 3:16 who told us:

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;"

There are two passages at the close of Matthew 5 that call us to a conspiracy of kindness as to how we treat others.  The first is found in Matthew 5:38-42:

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

We are glad at first to hear Jesus, in his dismissive way talking about the demise of the eye and tooth scenario.  As we feel a wave of relief pass over us we, shortly thereafter, hear something; it’s the other shoe dropping.  His teaching calls us to a higher plain of understanding regarding relationships and our own initial response is to balk. We immediately begin to assess what we have to lose by following through with these new teachings while missing the real intent of what Jesus is trying to say.

We are taught to steel our hearts against riches and power.  We are taught to be proactive in our relationships with others so that confrontation will not occur due to our unwillingness to do the right thing and/or the righteousness thing.  Or when it does occur, we are taught to suffer the loss of rights rather than to damage another’s opportunity hear the good news.  In all these, Jesus reminds us of the surprising capacity of proactive behavior to disarm and defuse situations.

Which brings me back to my VBS charge, Matthew.  Could it be that the key to discovering open doors into other’s lives has to do with our capacity to consistently practice Jesus’ methodology in our treatment of them?  It would have been easy to have been easy to show impatience or an ill temper with Matthew in response to his childish antics but would that had made the impact that patience and kindness appear to have made?  Perhaps that is why they are a part of the Spirit’s fruit assortment.  Patience and kindness, along with the others itemized in Galatians provide a framework of reference for Jesus followers to practice “second-mile” thinking without a second thought.  These are just the assets we need when facing the challenging moments in life when responding to those “Matthews” when they come our way.