A draught of kindness

We are living in a time in history unlike any I have ever known. We are living in a time when there is a draught of kindness.  

As I watch the news and read the morning headlines I see anger, harshness and cruelty. It seems we have become, as C.S. Lewis described it, "Men without chests."  We have lost our identity as a part of humanity, we have lost all heart and kindness for others and now we see the results.

We are now seeing what happens when we take God out of our lives and culture.  The outcome?  Men have become animals devouring one another with words, anger and weapons if possible.  We have lost our humanity and with it we have lost the essential ingredient of civility- kindness.

Somehow our culture assumed they could ignore God and suffer none of the consequences of such a decision, but when you remove God from a life you remove all that God is- love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness....ETC!  And what we end up with are animals walking on two feet fighting, biting and devouring one another.

What did we expect? Did we think we could ignore God and suffer none of the withdrawl that would go with it?  

Without God we lose the one thing that makes us different from the animals- our humanity!  Now that we have lost what makes us uniques God has turned us over to the outcome.  

Much like a good zombie movie we have become cruel, mindless and abusive with only one goal- devour one another.  It seems the zombie apocolypse has happened, but not as we imagined. 

But God invites us to a different story, a different outcome when he says, 

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

What we are missing today is the "just as..." part of this passage from Ephesians.  When we dismiss God we also dismiss all he has done and we lose the model, the example of how we should live with each other....we lose the example of Jesus.  And now we see it....a culture without God and all the side effects that go with it.  

Only in Christ will we discover our humanity again, only as we follow him do we live as he designed us.  In a time when there is a draught of kindness imagine what your kindness will taste like to someone dying from thirst for it. 

We dare not look like the world around us.  Instead we are called to a higher place when Paul wrote these amazing words, and in these words is the cure for the draught around you as you go through your day,

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

And how can we finish without a word from Solomon?  I will close with his words,

"Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart."

(For further study  on this topic read Jesus' words in Luke 6:27-38)