Posted tagged ‘kindness’

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Dark Walks

December 22, 2025

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2)

December 21st is referred to as the “shortest day of the year.” Actually, it’s the same length of time as any other day. The irony of its logo is that it is the longest day of darkness. Darkness comes early, only a few hours after it had stayed too long.

It is not uncommon for my wife and me to take dark walks during these days, saturated with darkness. There is a degree of treacherous stepping as we proceed up our street and around the neighborhood. Being familiar with where cracks in the sidewalk and potholes in the street exist helps us avoid most stumbles…most stumbles! Darkness hides new developments and dangers until it’s too late.

When Isaiah spoke his prophecy, it was a dark time for Judah. Assyria was dominating. The people were suffering. Oppression characterized the time. The words of the prophet must have sounded strange. “Seeing a great light?” “A light has dawned in deep darkness?” Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase renders the last part of the verse, “For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—
 light! sunbursts of light!“

When darkness dominates, is it a fairy tale to talk of sunbursts of light? Or, does any speck or glimmer of light get interpreted as hope?

When life is defined by the oppressiveness of darkness, seeing light at the end of the tunnel brings a welcome sigh of relief. Many folk describe their lives as being a walk in “the longest darkness.” What an incredible moment for them to have a sunburst of hope! A light that shows the path and the destination.

I read the news this morning. It was a walk into the dark world we live in. Violence, fraud, racism, poverty. I was looking for a light, just a ray, just a twinkle. Isaiah gives me that glimmer of hope. It came to me in the form of a 96-year-old woman from our church. Her daughter convinced her that it was finally time to give up the shoveling of her nieghbors’ driveway and sidewalks. She had done it for years. Two heart attacks hadn’t even stopped her. Sometimes darkness just needs someone to is willing to make a path for others.

Yesterday, during our Sunday worship service, the youth of our church showered her with joy when we gave her a plate of Christmas cookies we had baked and decorated. For a caring, elderly lady, it was a moment of vibrant kindness that brought a radiance to her face.

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Be Kind…Even If…

July 11, 2025

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:22-26)

A young lady in my youth group has started her first job at a fast-food restaurant. She has gotten up-close and personal with humanity this past week, and experience that no amount of manual training can prepare a teenager for.

She’s getting the idea that people are rude, mean, and unreasonable. The fact that a person’s french fries were left out of the order should not justify verbally abusing the young lady who brought the order to you. Cheap food sometimes produces cheap personalities and caustic attitudes.

This young lady is an awesome individual: hard-working, caring, a good listener, and a devoted follower of Jesus. The first-job experience, however is taking its toll on her. She came home extremely emotional after her first long day of delivering food to entitled adults, who have probably been their child’s teacher’s worst nightmare.

Kindness is one letter longer than “kid-ness.” I find that interesting, in that Jesus talked about becoming like a child (a kid): “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18:3) Kid-ness, I think, is wrapped up inside kindness. Which prompts the question, “Why are adults so abrasive about the fact that they had asked that there not be any mustard put on the sandwich, and there was?” Why does there seem to be battles happening over trivial details?

Perhaps it’s the absence of civility in our culture that has caused a void to develop, a chasm if you will, between treating people with respect versus belittling people with verbal venom. We don’t hear of many examples of kindness but we see a multitude of unkindness demonstrated each day at the highest levels in the lowest ways. We see the boldness of social-media-bullying from folk who don’t have the courage to confer face-to-face with those they have differences with.

At my middle school, our motto has been “Be Kind!” In many ways, that’s a good reminder, but it also makes me wonder if we’ve given up hope by even having to say the two words. Do people need to be reminded to treat their fellow man with respect? Shouldn’t that be on the same education level as 2+2=4?

My prayer for the young lady from my youth group is that she doesn’t give up hope on the goodness that is possible in people, that she sees herself as a light in the darkness that will not be dimmed by the stains of the world, and that she will see that smiling and being kind even in that moment of customer dissatisfaction about insignificant matters may be used to change that very person’s attitude.

May her kindness remain planted in kid-ness!

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Be Kind or Be Kinda’ Kind

September 25, 2018

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                   September 25, 2018

                            

At our middle school, as any other middle school, there has been a lot of information and discussion about bullying- what it is and what to do if you are the person who is being bullied? 

This school year there has been an initiative to have students and teachers think about doing the polar opposite of bullying. It’s the idea of being kind. Teachers and administrators wear t-shirts that say “Be Kind” on the front. (I’ve got one of the t-shirts!) Since school is only into its seventh week it’s hard to make any “kind” of determination on the effect or non-effect of the initiative yet. 

Students ARE influenced by slogans and sayings, images and symbols, but I’m not sure how well a school can teach kindness. It’s on a different plane than learning algebra, what the functions are of the three branches of government, or the different body parts of a grasshopper are. 

From my Christian faith, kindness is one of the results that emerges in the life of a Christ-follower as he/she allows the Holy Spirit to take up residence in his/her life. Kindness, along with other characteristics like perseverance, self-control, and peace are called “fruit of the Spirit.” That’s not to say that someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus can’t be kind, but I’m more comfortable with the belief that the Spirit can develop it within my life than in the idea that it can be taught to be a part of our human nature. 

Middle school students are a bizarre community of many things- kind and thoughtful, self-centered and obnoxious, unorganized and wrinkled, understanding and supportive. Perhaps teaching and emphasizing kindness will cause a number of them to think about what they say and do before they do it,  but I’m hesitant to believe it will change them for a lifetime. It may simply make this school year a little more tolerable!

I’m not so naive as to believe that if someone is a Christian he/she is automatically kind. I know a lot of people who identify themselves as Christians who are simply jerks! I wouldn’t let them date my granddaughter or walk my cat (if I still had a cat)! 

Jesus modeled kindness for his disciples. His disciples were a bit clumsy in how they showed such a practice, but it finally sunk in. Early followers of Christ were known for their kindness. It grew out of their spiritual relationships and from the life of their community. 

Can schools teach kindness that has sanitized from anything resembling Jesus? Time will tell, but it may end up being more like a “kinda’ kind!”

Categories: Bible, children, Christianity, Community, Faith, Freedom, Grace, Holy Spirit, Humor, Jesus, love, Nation, Parenting, Pastor, Story, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
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Opening A Door

January 23, 2015

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                                  January 23, 2015

                                                  

I watched a video online this week that my wife had forwarded to me that brought me to the edge of tears. It told a story about a young man who had lost his dad, and then he and his mom used from a small town to a city. His mom thought a change in setting would ease some of her son’s pain as he dealt with his father’s death. His new high school was substantially larger than the one in his small town.

It’s hard being the new kid in a setting where people have their friends already, their peer groups, and their places of standing. That is, high schoolers know the pecking order…who to give space to, who to chum up with, and, hard as it is to say, who doesn’t matter that much.

This young man, Josh, started to be picked on and bullied. He had pictures in his locker of his father that got torn down. Sometimes insecure students will do unbelievably cruel things to others…just because!

In the midst of new surroundings and a journey of grief Josh started opening doors for people. He would arrive at school early and hold the door open for other students coming in. In between classes he would hold the hallway door open as students rushed from class to class. After a while some of the students started noticing. He started being referred to as “the door guy.” More and more students started saying “thank you” or they would give Josh a high five! More students became familiar with his story and were taken back by his wounded heart that was still looking at doing simple acts of kindness.

Such a simple thing! Opening a door!

Josh began speaking to groups of elementary and middle school students about bullying and overcoming. He developed his new gift of public speaking…and continued to open doors!

I so often hear people say they have nothing to offer, that they don’t know what their gifts are and how they can serve. There’s a tendency to make it a grandiose thing that is out of their reach. They wallow in their defeat and sense of worthlessness.

Josh’s story hit me, because almost all of us can open a door for someone. Seeking to help is a personal decision, not a talent. Every person can be a benefit to others. Telling a cashier that you hope he has a good day, shoveling your neighbor’s sidewalk, donating a book to the library, mentoring a fatherless child, praying with a parent in a hospital waiting room, or…simply opening a door!

Opening doors doesn’t require training, or to be certified. It’s simply a choice that we avoid or welcome.

 

Categories: children, Christianity, Community, Death, Freedom, Grace, love, Parenting, Story, Teamwork, The Church, Uncategorized, Youth
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The Emerging Rude Factor

October 24, 2012

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                                October 24, 2012

 

I was driving in the downtown area today with my youngest daughter and witnessed a determined lady turning on to the street we were on and disregarding a woman and her pre-schooler crossing the street. She sped on to pursue her daily agenda items, leaving an angry mom in her wake.

But sometimes there is justice! A police cruiser saw the whole thing, turned the flashing lights on, and sped after the speeding lady.

If only it would be that way all the time!

Rudeness has made a comeback, not that it ever left. It is leaving offended people behind it as it races on. I see it at high school sporting events, not just with the students, but also with the adults. Once in a while a display of good sportsmanship emerges to the point that it is commended and put on YouTube, but those have become the exceptions and not the norm.

I see it in how young people treat older people, and how older people treat younger people.

I see it in politics, but enough of that!

I see it in how people treat someone who is overweight; and I see it in how someone who is slower than another person can tolerate.

I especially see it in driving habits.

And now I see it in Facebook posts and Twitter tweets.

I see it on t-shirts that seek to either incite, draw attention, or both.

And I see it in the church.

Rudeness has become the norm.

The thing is…there’s this list qualities and characteristics that are written down in Galatians 5 by the Apostle Paul. It’s a good list! A list that many of us would want to see lived out in our child, or the potential marriage partner that we bring home to meet Mom and Dad. It’s a list of fruits, spiritual fruits. As I look at that list- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control- each of the fruits goes sharply against rudeness in some way.

If I’m patient I won’t try to rush ahead and cut someone off.

If I’m kind I won’t look for the first opening to tear someone down.

If I’m joyful there will be no bitterness in my actions.

 

Rudeness is a slippery slope sliding towards ripped apart relationships.

And why do we give in to its lure. Because even though we don’t want to admit it, too often it is still all about you, or all about me. And if you point that out to me I may call you rude!

Categories: Christianity, Community, Freedom, Grace, love, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
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