Would you take the kindess pledge?

 

For 2023 my objective for the year is to live out kindness. This is my personal “goal” for the year. I want to be more kind at the end of the year than I was at the beginning of the year. 

On Sunday, June 28^th I shared a sermon on kindness. You can find it by clicking the link at colpres.org. In getting ready for that sermon I took a deep dive into the work of Greg Atkinson that he wrote on kindness. Shortly after that sermon he released a book called, “The Secret Power of Kindness." I love the book and encourage everyone to read it. 

He shared two definitions of kindness that have stayed with me. 

“the secret power of kindness is the self-awareness to know that you have the power to make or break someone else’s day and eventually change the world. Kindness has no hidden agenda or strings attached. Its only purpose is to express love to another soul made in the image of God.” 

“The Secret Power of Kindness,” Page 12 

“Kindness has been defined as loaning someone your strength instead of reminding them of your weakness.”  Brene Brown 

Kindness is not often associated with power. It’s easy to think that a kind person is a pushover—that the person will be nice and will give in during an argument. This isn’t the case at all. Let me 

Kindness comes from the Hebrew word “chesed.” Chesed has many different nuances. It means steadfast love and loyalty. It’s the essence of a marriage relationship. 

Chesed is the opposite of giving in. In fact it is staying with a difficult situation with a perspective of care. It’s not running away when life gets hard or messy or disagreeable. Kindness has a deep rootedness to it. It is like a tree planted by streams of water that the Psalmist wrote about in the first Psalm. 

The definition of kindness is to stay connected even when people disagree. It's not giving in. It's staying rooted. Our culture needs this kindness. 

I love the song called Revolutionary written by Josh Wilson. You can find the link to the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6glQdaQUZ1U. He sang this:

“Why does kindness seem revolutionary?
When did we let hate get so ordinary?
Let's turn it around, flip the script
Judge slow, love quick
God help us get revolutionary.” 

To think that the word, “kindness” would be paired with the word “revolutionary” shows where we are as a culture.  

When Josh Wilson and two others wrote the lyrics to the song they were pessimistic about their expectations about the divisiveness of the upcoming Presidential campaign.    

He didn’t even know that in March 2020 a world-wide pandemic would happen; then in June of 2020 George Floyd would be murdered in front of the world and that protests all over the world  would take place. 

He wrote, “No matter what side of the political spectrum we’re on, deep down I know that we are not as different as we are led to believe. There is peace to be made, there are names to be learned, meals to be had, chasms to be crossed, and it all starts with kindness.” 

In his book on kindness Greg Atkinson wrote about ten keys to unlocking kindness. As the picture of the Table of Contents shares, they are forgiveness, generosity, composure, acceptance, rest, wisdom, empathy, patience, love, and unity. These qualities are similar to the Fruit of the Spirit. When they are planted inside of our own spirit and nurtured we are on the path to being who God wants us to be. 

This is how I want to live; and this is how I want to see others live. 

I would encourage organizations to do a kindness audit. Imagine if companies and non-profits lifted up people who exhibited kindness, while recognizing when kindness wasn’t expressed. What if kindness became a Core Value of companies—employees would come to expect that kindness was the expectation for behavior. 

Kindness seems so basic that it wouldn’t need attention—except that, as I mentioned above, we are not living out kindness as a culture. 

For worship that day, I purchased wristbands that said kindness matters and distributed them to everyone present. I wear mine every day. It’s my own reminder to live out kindness. No matter how stressful or emotional a situation I find myself, my response is kindness. 

Greg Atkinson and Josh Wilson got it right. Kindess is revolutionary. And we need a revolution! 

I want to encourage you to take the kindness pledge. 

“I pledge during this year to strive for kindness in all of my interactions; I pledge to study kindness, to look at myself and to learn when I don’t share kindness; I want to be more consistently kind at the end of this year than at the start.” 

If you will take the kindness pledge, say "yes" in the comments.