Selfishness runs counter to Kindness

Be Kind. I’ve always told my children, don’t burn bridges. You don’t know when you might have to deal with that person again, and it would be best if you had a good relationship with them. When we look at life as a whole, there are many ways to evaluate success. We can look at our career, the size of our house, the honors we have won, the various places we have traveled and lived.

That being said, I think one of the saddest testaments in life is when all is said and done, no one is there by your deathbed, and there is no one to remember your burial. If there was a measure of success, we could ask what difference did we make in this world? I have a simple measure, was my family happy? Or if I didn’t have a family, did the people around me, like me? Was I a blessing to the people around me?

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

One of the earliest instruction we give to our children is this, “be nice”. Selfishness runs counter to kindness. When we only live for ourselves, we put the needs of others after ours. Christianity is an attempt to flip that world around. God is love. God is kind. We are being fitted for the most wonderful place in the universe, and the reason it is so wonderful is that everyone in heaven is kind.

As a church we can make a great difference in the world. We can share something directly to our community where we live in. How? “Be Nice.” If all our theology and doctrine can not produce kindness, then all our religion is for naught.

Religion is not about us, it’s about Jesus. If our goals is to be saved, I think we have missed the point. Our goal here is that others might be saved and thereby we will find our own salvation. How do we get church to work together? How do we get a hundred people to go the same direction? I don’t have all the answers, but here is a start. Be Kind.

Connected to the Vine

-Pastor Danny