The Choice

“Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him…you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercies, kindness…”

- The Apostle Paul, Colossians 3:10,12

“It’s a strange paradox — God created us in His image, but everyday we try to re-create Him into ours.”

- A.W. Tozer

Last Saturday night was Halloween. As I watched my two excited granddaughters, dressed up as Lil’ Red Riding Hood and Ariel, run through their neighborhood with other little superheroes, goblins and ghosts, aliens and dinosaurs, I was struck by an eerily strange sight: two costumed neighbors…one with a BIDEN sign on his front lawn and the other with a TRUMP sign on his front lawn…standing at the end of their driveways laughing and smiling together as they handed out candy and cheered at all the costumed children in the parade. The truth is, that last part…it never happened.  But don’t you wish it did?!

I find myself wondering these days: what will it take to break down this dividing wall of hostility?  Candy?... Costumes? Or will it take something more?

In Colossians 3:12, the Apostle Paul seems to imply that we can put on Kindness like we would put on a costume of Hulk Hogan or Wonder Woman. But I wonder if it's really that easy. I remember when a fella said to me, “My wife ‘put’ me in a bad mood!” And I said, “She ‘PUT’ you?...What?…Are you a goldfish and she scooped you up and put you in a bad mood bowl? You are a grown man and the truth is, you chose to go to the emotion that was suggested to you!”

In last week’s message, our teacher, Mike Foster, said “Kindness invites me to re-frame what I immediately see.” In other words, we have a Choice! The Apostle Paul taught us in Galatians 5:22 that the Spirit of God has planted the seed of kindness in us and that we have the power to choose kindness over meanness every time. If someone “put” me in a bad mood, then I’m stuck! But if I own my emotions, then I have some options on how to respond and what my mood will be!

Ever since Cain and Abel, the human race has been building barriers. I can remember being in the back seat of Dad’s 1960 Buick LeSabre, looking at my brother and sisters and snarling, “You better not cross this line!” Barriers go up quickly between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, between co-workers, between neighbors, between countries, between churches, between races. But there is something that doesn’t like a barrier…Kindness! Soooo today, whoever is elected as the President of the United States of America, I personally would like him to know…whoever it is…that I am choosing to clothe myself with Kindness (My “Jesus” costume), and I will pray for him everyday as the leader of my country.

I mean, c’mon! We’re all on the same team.  Isn’t it time to try a little kindness where it really matters?!

Pastor Harry

‍