January 27, 2016

Sow Kindness

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. -- Galatians 6:9

There’s a scene in the movie War Room where one man stops and changes the tire on another car. Simple enough. Except, not really. Earlier in the movie the man with the flat tire and had hatefully argued that the other man should be prosecuted for his wrongs. And the other man, well, he had turned his life around and recommitted himself to God.

So he did the right thing.

It shocked the man with the flat tire. Maybe it even touched his hard heart. He wasn’t used to somebody doing something good, somebody he’d condemned, somebody who wasn’t going to benefit from the good deed.

We’re a little like that, aren’t we? We always look for the ulterior motive. We justify our own lack of kindness with the excuse that nobody would do it for us. Somehow we think that makes it alright. It doesn’t.

As God’s people, we’re to do good where we can, anyway that we can. Not because we expect to get anything out of it. Not because we think the other person deserves it. Not because it’s convenient or we’ll look good or we feel like it. We’re to do good because it is what He has called us to do.

We grow weary sometimes. We are condemned. Criticized. Judged. And yet we are to do good anyway.

The man in the movie did something wrong. He did. He admitted it -- belatedly I might add. But he admitted what he had done even though he knew that jail was a possibility. He did what was right. Fortunately, another man offered him grace that could only come from God.

Do good. Treat others as you want to be treated. Sow kindness. Lend a helping hand. Live your life so that others see Jesus in you.