The Kindness Remains

(A gift of the whole booklet was mailed to me.  Here is more on the "kindness" theme. Author unknown).

We left off yesterday when we were considering the fact that Jesus can be as hard as flint at very moment He is as tender as a mother. He can be tenderly terrible and terribly tender.  A little orphaned boy was practically adopted by a soldier during the war. One day he let slip a swear word, and when he did , he looked around for the disapproval and rebuke of his adopting guardian.  But instead the soldier laughed and said, "Never mind, Sonny, say all that kind of thing you want."  The little fellow thought a moment and then burst into tears and said, "If you were my father, you wouldn't say that."  He felt he had wanted and needed something more than sentimental kindness.  He wanted to be saved by hard refusals.

With this redemptive content put into kindness we now consider our growth in kindness.  Perhaps now we can quote these lines, since we have put into kindness a higher meaning:

                                               So many gods, so many creeds,
                                                    So many paths that wind and wind,
                                                When all this sad world needs
                                                     Is just the art of being kind.

That kindness is important is seen by the fact that we remember an act of kindness when all events slip out of memory.  The kindness remains.  At a time when bitterness was strong between Britain and India, I found a prominent Indian wearing a white flower in his buttonhole each day.  He explained to me that when he was in Britain studying, the English landlady used to put a white flower in his buttonhole each day.  The kindness stood out like a star on a dark night of bitterness.

The Finnish people have treated me with many honors--large crowds, eager listeners--but one thing that stands out is the act of an unknown Finnish lady who ran out into the street in the snow, stopped the car and handed me a flower through the window.  That flower blooms fresh and fragrant in my grateful memory.

O Father, help me this day to do some act of kindness that may live in somebody's memory forever. Amen.

Affirmation for the day:  I cover all ugly unkindliness with the same robe of kindliness with which He covers my ugliness. 

Thoughts Generate Chemicals

An Olympic Athlete Trainer says this----

There are four negative feelings or thoughts that produce toxic chemicals in the brain.  They are Hate, Greed, Fear, and Jealousy.  To get his athletes to do better they must change these to Love, Generosity, Courage, and Praise.

He claims that service to others is one of the best ways to move into the healthy context.  Doing this has proven, he says, to be effective in producing the winning edge.

Interesting discovery.  Thoughts produce chemicals, and positive thoughts produce positive chemicals.Of course there is a time for sorrow and vexation, but they must not dominate or they will infect.

Growth in Kindness, or Kindliness

The following comes from a little very old booklet someone sent me:

We come now to the fruit of the Spirit known as kindliness.
This is a very homely virtue, homely in the British sense of belonging to the home--a very commonplace, ordinary virtue.  And yet it is ordinary as salt, and as essential.  Without kindliness there is no virtue in the other virtues.  It puts a flavor into all the other virtues; without it they are insipid and tasteless; or worse, they degenerate into vices.  Love, joy , peace, good temper, without kindliness are very doubtful virtues.  So it is no chance that this is the middle virtue of the nine, putting flavor into all the others.

So to grow in kindliness is to grow in virtues that are flavored with a certain spirit.  The spirit of kindliness pervades everything.  The Old Testament, especially the Psalms, uses the expression "loving-kindness."  A little boy explained the difference between kindness and loving-kindness:  "Kindness is when your mother gives you a piece of bread and butter, but it is loving-kindness when she puts jam on it as well."

But in the New Testament a content has gone into kindness that made adding the "loving" unnecessary.  We have quoted a passage into which the content of Jesus has gone into the worlds:  Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus"  Not merely the same actions, but the same spirit in the actions as was in Jesus.  This is the high water of morality in this universe.  Beyond this the human race will not , and cannot, progress.  This is a character and conduct ultimate.  This gives kindness a plus--an infinite plus.

And this saves kindness from mere maudlin sentimentality.  It can be very severe--severe because He loves so deeply that He often has to save us by hard refusals.  And His kindness can cut--it can cut when, like a surgeon, He insists on cutting out of us moral tumors and cancers.  But always His severity is security.  It is redemptive.  He loves us too much to let us go.