“Morality is all we have left to find us into shared responsibility for the common good. Morality is our oldest and most powerful resource for turning disconnected ‘I’s’ into a collective ‘we.’ Its’ the alchemy that turns selfish genes into selfless people, egoists into altruists, and self-interested striving into empathy, sympathy, and compassion for others.” Jonathan Sacks
In God I place my trust, not in man. God will not be mocked by those who choose war over peace, hatred over love or greed over human rights. God is love and He loves all of His creation. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners and his love for all of us overcomes the one who seeks to destroy us. Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these? LOVE! Carla
Psalm 42:11
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God. NKJV
The psalmist asks these troubling questions in faith, for he remembers that God is his Rock, his protector and foundation. He cannot help but hope in Him in the middle of difficult circumstances. The NKJV Study Bible
Hope—one of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing (Romans 8:24; 1 John 3:2). “
Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Peter 3:15; Hebrews 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (Ephesians 1:18; 4:4).” Unbelievers are without this hope (Ephesians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Timothy 1:1; Colossians 1:27; Titus 2:13). It is spoken of as “lively”, i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Peter 1:3). In Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature
Psalm 42:5
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.
Matthew 26:38
Then He said to them,
“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.
Stay here and watch with Me.”
When cruelty becomes normal, kindness looks radical.
Today, I can choose to Be kind.
I can choose to Be generous. I can choose to Be inclusive.
I can choose to not demean or shame.
I love the phrase, “choosing to heal”. It would be a great book title. And an even better life mission.
“What do you do?”
“I choose to create moments that heal.”
As Ashley Judd noted when talking about her mother, “You can pretend to care. But you can’t pretend to show up.”
And more than ever, we need gifts of kindness in a world that honors cruelty as the new normal.
We live in a world that can be merciless—with violence and hatred perpetrated by people in power.
And yes, there are a heap plenty of people and systems to blame. (And it is always some other people, and some other system.)
But the truth is that we wound one another.
We wound with real wars, and real bullets.
We wound with words, and with hatred and resentment.
We wound with intolerance and small-mindedness (some of it in the name of “love” and God).
“If we have no peace,” Mother Teresa reminded us, “it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
Well, if we do belong to one other, then “they”—the “least of these” and those without voices—are indeed, our children.
Ours to care for.
Ours to listen to.
Ours to see.
Yes. Think of kindness, as resistance.
From Jewish tradition we learn our job title; Tikkun olam. Literally, “repairing the world”.
The word olam also means hidden. We need to repair the world so that its Creator is no longer hidden within, but shines through each thing in magnificent, harmonious beauty.
Choosing (working) to heal (Tikkun olam) isn’t only for the spiritually or intellectually inclined.
Choosing to heal is in our DNA. As children of our creator, we are healers.
In kindness, we affirm dignity.
In empathy, we see value and build connections.
With compassion and justice, we right wrongs and create sanctuaries.
I think we lose sight of the fact that kindness is a form of strength, not weakness.
It takes courage to remain gentle in a world that often celebrates harshness.
It requires bravery to keep our hearts open when it might feel safer to close them.
Each act of kindness is a quiet rebellion against cynicism and indifference, a statement of faith in our shared humanity.
Let us make our decisions—as individuals, as organizations—with kindness and empathy as our core values.
And let us take this to heart: Those who cannot feel the pain of others should never be trusted with their fate. Power without compassion walks a crooked trail, and leaves too many wounded.
“Practice empathy loudly,” John Pavlovitz encourages us. “With a President whose tenure has been marked by such malice and in an Administration so filled with cruelty, compassion and kindness are bold acts of resistance.“What do you do?”
“I choose to create moments that heal.” Sabbath Moments
No comments:
Post a Comment