A Missing in Action Word for Christians: Living Out Kindness

by David Chadwick

Kindness. It is a word that our modern society seems to undervalue and it is a "missing in action" concept in the Christian world.

This week, my exhortation has been to reclaim kindness.

We have talked about remembering how important kindness is, we have talked about how to reclaim it, how to increase a life of kindness and show it to others.

Today, I want to call all of us to action to live out kindness from this moment forward.

Kindness does not come naturally. It has to be remembered, reclaimed, increased, demonstrated to all, and lived out every day.

Unfortunately, in this broken world, human nature is driven to take care of ourselves first and sometimes no one else at all. Some of us will expand care beyond ourselves and into our family, but the majority of natural instinct is to take care of self and to self-protect.

But when Jesus invades a heart, kindness MUST follow. After all, it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It may be as simple as this truth: Grow closer to Jesus and more kindness will flow in and through you.

Jesus is the epitome of kindness and displayed it throughout his life here on earth. He always saw people through the eyes of kindness knowing they were like sheep without a shepherd. When we encounter the love and kindness of Jesus, it must flow through us to others.

To whom do you need to show kindness today? Someone in your family? Maybe it's to a friend? Someone in your workplace? Maybe even to an enemy?

As we wrap up, I would challenge you with this question: If kindness is not in your life as a follower of Jesus, can you honestly say that your life is in him?