Kindness Absence!

September 2, 2021

Kindness Absence!

Kindness seems to be increasingly rare. 

This week, I read about murders, assaults, and beatings where I live.  Babies are being shaken, children are being sexually abused, and students are being threatened in my city.  Where is kindness?

Last week, I read about a man from Florida who traveled to Omaha, Nebraska and killed his father.  Two weeks ago, there was a threat of violence against people who work in a clinic where Covid vaccinations are administered in Ogallala, Nebraska.  Where is kindness?    

As if that is not enough, there is violence and death occurring in the Gaza Strip and Israel, bombings and death occurring in Afghanistan, and terrorism and death occurring in Iran.  In our global community today, violence and terrorism seems more epidemic than the Covid pandemic.  Where is kindness? 

In our own nation, violence and threats of violence are made against politicians who are in session.  Female college students are raped while male students record themselves laughing at the accusations.  Older citizens often live unappreciated and die isolated.  Where is kindness?

You receive a phone call from a friend and the conversation quickly turns into a rant of angry accusations.  And then, they just hang up.  You ask for a little help in a store and are treated like you are a huge inconvenience.  Where is the kindness?

You express an opinion with a desire to stimulate some conversation among co-workers about something other than the weather.  Instead of a civil conversation, people escalate emotions of intolerance and impatience as well as criticism and judgement.  Where is the kindness?

Kindness seems to be increasingly rare.  Kindness is absent in many of the people we encounter.  And, sometimes kindness is absent in you and me, too!

There are moments when I find myself a little less patient, a little less tolerant, and a little less easy-going.  I notice that in some conversations I begin to lean in the direction of being a little less charitable, a little less understanding, and a little less kind. 

When that happens, I don’t like what I see in myself.  When I look around, I notice that our world is in a season of deep spiritual crisis.  The evidence is that kindness is increasingly rare.

I am reminded that I can call upon the Holy Spirit to do something in me that I am not able to do with just my own will power.  In Galatians 5:22-23 we hear; “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

It is the Holy Spirit who produces kindness in you and me.  We cannot legislate kindness, mandate kindness, or coerce kindness.  Stickers and signs saying “Be Kind!” will not change our family, our work-place, or our world.  We need an infusion of the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of kindness in us. 

Kindness is a measure of our spiritual depth and our spiritual practice.  Kindness grows in the human heart when we invite the Holy Spirit to guide us and grow us.  Kindness flows out of a heart filled with the love of Jesus. 

When our heart is filled with the love of Jesus, we will delight in the Lord.  Let us invite the Spirit to produce kindness and love in our heart so we will be kind to one another.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug