it starts with sensitivity...

1 corinthians 10.24 (ncv) says, look out for the good of others.

the first step to kindness is to ask GOD to give you SPIRITual radar, that you would be on the lookout for people in need around you who are hurting emotionally, SPIRITually, physically and in any other way.

some of you don’t need this reminder. you were born sensitive. you automatically sense when people are in need around you. it’s not that you’re more SPIRItual than the rest of us. you’re just wired that way. you’re just naturally sensitive to when people are in pain or whether they’re in hurt.

on the other hand, the rest of you have SPIRITual a d d. it’s easy to get distracted. it’s easy to be task focused and not be sensitive to what’s happening around you.

my wife, margaret is a nurse and a great nurse has the ability to anticipate pain in the patient and then help them.

i thought, that’s the essence of kindness – the ability to anticipate pain, hurt, brokenness, woundedness and then be able to move in and do something about it.

we work with people all the time whose lives are crumbling, but we don’t know anything about it. kindness starts with sensitivity. kindness starts in the eyes. it starts with awareness, observing what’s happening in people’s lives.

we need to start seeing and stop ignoring. the bible says this in galatians 6.8 (the message paraphrase), the person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others, harvests a crop of weeds. all they have to show for his life is weeds.

the fact is, it’s not always easy to see the needs of other people, especially when they’re on the other side of the road. but it’s the starting point of kindness. kindness starts with seeing the needs of the people around you. it starts with sensitivity.

just a thought from the front porch…