Kindness. Never before in the history of my life have I heard so much outward talk about kindness. Reminders of it, everywhere — practice kindness. And love. We have to be reminded of the fact that we should do as Jesus did, love one another.
When people ask me, “how can you believe in Jesus? How can you believe in fairytales?” I say, “I have faith. It’s a feeling. Not something you can manufacture and sell and give out to others. I have faith. And above all, I believe, what you call, fairytales, because I believe in the one basic tenet that lies within the New Testement of the Bible. Love. One. Another.”
And in my very basic understanding of theology and Christianity, no where does the big J guy say, “love one another unlessssss…” Or “love one another excepppppppt.”
Now I am sure that there are plenty of people who will want to throw scripture at me after this and say “but what about here… And here… And what do you think was intended by this?”
LOVE. ONE. ANOTHER.
That’s the home I grew up in. My parents didn’t care what race or gender my friends were. My parents didn’t care how much money anyone else had. They made us have a “job” at a young age, cleaning my dad’s firm. They made us have chores. They taught us responsibility. To the family unit. My parents put us in 4-H to practice service. To teach us responsibility to our community. They brought us up attending church and choir practice and youth group — and honestly, because that’s what their parents had done with them. And honestly, we didn’t get deep about religion at home. We prayed before dinner. We prayed before bed. I went to church camp. Sunday school. And the like. I fell in love with hymns. My church became a second family. But what I thought about religion was not really that influential in my upbringing. They asked that we attend church, I believe, because they believed in their faith. And they wanted us to learn what that meant to them.
What it was to: be kind. Be honest. Love one another.
But really, when you get down to the very basics of it… When you strip Christianity all down, isn’t that acting like Jesus would have wanted us to?
Help a neighbor. Give a smile. Say hello. Connect to other humans. Cherish relationships. Give back to your community. Help those in need who you’ve never met. Honor those who have past. Respect the next generation to come, for they will shape our world. Accept differences as you have them, too. Manage your pride. Practice humility. Trust in humankind. And of course, heal the blind.
I don’t believe that if the Bible were written, first, at www.bible.org that it instead would have read, “just do you.” Or “fight with words. Every chance you get.” I don’t believe it would read, “you matter more.” Or “question everyone. And everything.”
But as I rocked my baby to sleep last night, I thought about that. I thought, as I rocked and sang,
What can I do?
What, can we as parents, do, to help our kids block out the media storm short of hiding it from them? What can we do to make them the human kind, the real kind, without shoving it down their throats and making them resent it? What can we do to help them understand that beratement and mud-slinging and unkind words are just that — words — and that, because of social media, those words are now more permanent than ever? What can we do?
Easy. Well. At least, the only thing I can come up with is easy. Easy for me or for you.
Find the spark.
And light the flame. In your home. In your life. In your heart. Let it shine from you. And hopefully, you’re children will learn from your actions and not your reactions. Hopefully they will learn from your capacity for kindness rather than angst and hatred. Hopefully they will learn “from watching you.”
I sang to him last night. It’s where so many of my posts are born. In that rocking chair. Holding a little capsule of the future of our world, right on my lap. Rocking in silence. In darkness. In safety. It is where I sing and he breathes big, end of the day breaths and I brush his arm with my hand and he twirls his hand over and over his mop of curls. It is a place where there is no news. No negative. No disease. No shouting. It is just one human life and another, co-existing in harmony. Actually co-existing in a way that fills us both beyond full. A way that reminds me of the spark.
And I sang…
It only takes a spark. To get a fire going. And soon all those around… Will warm up in it’s glowing.
It’s not just about being Christian. It’s not about religion. It’s not about culture. Or skin color. It’s about something that can be spoken no matter your wealth or pedigree (I know I know, “says the middle class white girl from middle America”). But truly. People. Teach kindness. Model humanity. Preach understanding. And give love. Give love.
Those things should know no bounds.
There will always be haters. Judgers. Those who question your motives. And your sanity. But you have to let those people go. You have to let the light outshine the dark. You have to let the good outweigh the bad. Not because the world is so bad. But because the world can be that good. So good. So kind. So lovely. Without so much hate.
Heed the reminders. Notice the messages. Share the memes. And the smiles. Send a text. Write a letter to a friend. Pick up the phone. Have coffee with a friend. Make a lunch date to catch up. Serve other people. Practice radical hospitality. Share the Goodness that is living in your heart. And like a brilliant man named Kid President once said, “throw kindness around like confetti.”
It can be about religion. It can be about faith, to me it is. But it can also be about your innate ability to be a good human instead of a useless bag of bones. Whatever it is about for you… Practice kindness. The world needs it. Now. The world needs it. Always.
It only takes a spark. And you, yes you, can be it. The spark. Never underestimate your ability to be an agent of change. A beacon of goodness. A bright light that the world needs to see shine.
Be the spark. And maybe, just maybe, you will set the world ablaze.
*print from www.foursisters.com
