One Of A Kind

Last night when I was walking with my boys around the neighborhood I became irritated at the way one of my boys spoke to another.

“Be Kind,” I shouted, only to quickly realize the irony of shouting that phrase.

We want kindness for others. We know our world needs it. Apparently, the Spirit of God has chosen it for us.

I also have to remind myself that kindness isn’t niceness, it’s a confident trust in God’s ability to bend the future towards His will, to bring His kingdom, and when I am kind, I am trusting He will do as He has promised. He doesn’t need me to do it for Him.

In other words, I don’t have to let someone else’s bad behavior bring bad behavior out of me. I can choose kindness in all things. I keep thinking about this verse in these days, Micah 6:8:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

I don’t know if I love kindness. I love winning. Yet if the Spirit is inside of me, I know I win. I can love kindness in the face of any circumstance. Kindness keeps me focused on what matters. Kindness keeps me focused on trusting God to hold all things together, even when they seem to be unraveling.  Kindness is the behavior manifested in my relationships with others when I am really trusting God.

The question we should be asking ourselves is not whether or not we are kind, but whether or not we trust God to bring His kingdom and to not abandon His creation. Kindness is our declaration of trust!

Pastor Jared

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