The Fruit of Kindness by Sharon Heagy

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control." Galatians 5:22-23

Though I hate to admit it, there are many days when I am not kind. When I let my impatience and irritation get the best of me. Those days I am snarky and snappy and crabby. Often I don't even know why I am reacting like an unruly child, or overreacting to, well, everything. There is just a sense of restlessness, an air of prickliness, a profound crankiness. Everywhere I go I feel like I am accompanied by the music played in Bugs Bunny when the bad guy appears. Bomp bomp, bomp bomp, bomp bomp, bomp bomp. These are also days when remorse rears its head and I weep for the people who have been on the receiving end of my grumpy attitude as I overthink how my obnoxious behaviour has affected them. Believing they will never forgive me when in reality most of them weren't even bothered and carried on with their day as if nothing ever happened. "Good grief, Charlie Brown!"

Then there are other days, when I look beyond myself and am able to extend some sort of small kindness to others or to receive a blessing from a gentle person. Most of us find the latter harder than the giving but the need to be gracious is imperative for both. In our community, meals and flowers are exchanged when someone has passed away or is ill. If there is work to be done, people come together in a work bee to lift one more burden from the back of one who is suffering. Fundraisers abound to help those with financial stresses in times of need. Yet the compassionate acts that are unexpected, those that come or go at just the right time, are tender gifts best loved. And if they are done in anonymity, all the better. They get our warm fuzzies going and produce a bursting grateful heart overflowing with love.

But is that what kindness is all about? Is it just about being good to one another? A feel-good action and then we are on our merry way? The questions bounced around my brain and I sought to find the answer.

In the verse from Galatians 5:22-23, kindness is mentioned as one fruit the Spirit provides. The Greek word for kind is chrestotes (khary-stot-ace). The meaning of the word does confirm the importance of benevolent actions to another but its meaning holds so much more. It is a way of being. There is a purity about it that also includes having a tender and gentle disposition. It is a matter of character and attitude even to people we'd rather not deal with or with those who would rather not deal with us. How easy it is to be kind and giving to those who love us, yet more difficult to allow others to give us a slap on the cheek and turn and offer the other. (Matthew 5:39) Kindness is not an inherent natural quality. It is a gift from God given by the power of His Spirit.

The greatest kindness I have ever received is truth given in love. When my steps become wayward and confusion bars the path, there are those who love me enough and will, in His loving kindness, help to clear the way and set me straight on the road home once more. It doesn't always feel like kindness in the beginning, but I am grateful for those who persevere and for a God who confirms the truth. It isn't always easy to share the truth either but it's priceless to those who will receive it. A parcel to unpack along one's faith journey.

The ultimate kindness for me was to be introduced to Jesus. To learn of His grace, mercy and forgiveness. To learn of the price He paid for my debt. He loves even me, just the way I am. He loves even you, just the way you are. On Sunday, we will celebrate the resurrection power that saved all humanity if only we would ask and believe. Perhaps an opportunity will be opened for us to share that ultimate kindness with a fellow faith traveller, to share the Saviour Himself. 

May each of us be transformed by God into a person of continual kindness and may your Easter season be blessed.

Sharon Heagy writes from the little town of Rockglen, which is nestled in the hills of southern Saskatchewan. Her kids have flown the coop so she and her husband have retired to town. She writes to inspire and give hope with a chuckle or two along the way.

"Good grief, Charlie Brown!" - Charles M. Schultz

'A' is for Albatross? by Sharon Heagy

                                                        photo by Alain Rider (Unsplash)
    

     Albatross is not my ‘A’ word for the month but I think it is kind of a cool word to say and quite an interesting bird to read about. Which is to say, when I began writing this blog post and decided to entitle it ‘A is for Albatross’, I was led down a path of discovery all about albatrosses. One of the interesting tidbits I learned was that the albatross will sometimes abandon its nest, especially if it is a first-time nester. This doesn’t bode well for the population as they only lay and hatch one egg at a time. This brings me to my actual ‘A’ word which is abandon.

    Abandon can have many negative associations. It can evoke a sense of sadness when we are watching nature shows and animals abandon their nests or young. Stories of parents or caregivers abandoning children, the ill or the elderly can crush our hearts and leave us wondering how we can help. It can refer to someone who embraces an illicit lifestyle such as drugs, theft or love affairs which they pursue with abandon. With no restraint or inhibitions. Reckless. But when it comes to writing, and especially for the Christian author, abandon takes on a different bent.

    Yes, there are times we need to abandon a piece we are writing because it just will not work no matter how hard we try to mould it into something worthwhile. We will need to discard it, ditch it, rip off the band-aid and throw it away, and then, more importantly, begin again.

    Facing the blank page once more. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. What am I going to do now? My first move needs to be to abandon my work in a different way than the examples above. I need to yield and give it over to the One from whom my gift was given. My first posture needs to be one of prayer and praise. Yet I must move beyond that to doing the work that accompanies faith.  

    This leads to the next exciting part, the writing. The process. And in that process I need to learn to write with complete lack of inhibition or restraint, entire and utter surrender, with complete abandon. The ink flowing from the Holy Spirit through my head and heart and onto the page. Words gushing out like they are coming from a holy fountain pen. This does not come naturally in my fleshly state but those times can come with practice.

In his book, ‘Your God is Too Safe’, Mark Buchanan talks about practicing the presence of God:

     “That’s why we need to practice the presence of God: Not just to acknowledge in some     philosophical way that God is present, but to rehearse, to repeat, to work and rework our knowledge that even though we don’t see Him and sometimes don’t feel Him, He is there. He is here. When we practice the presence of God, we train ourselves to desire His presence-to resist our temptation to flee Him. We also train ourselves to experience His presence-to resist our temptation to think that He flees us. In other words, the practice of the presence of God helps us to live between the temptations of Jonah bound for Tarshish and John bound in prison. Jonah is the prophet who wants to abandon God. John is the prophet who feels abandoned by God.”

May each one of us practice His presence in 2023 and learn to write with abandon to the glory of God.