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“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  Colossians 3:12-14 NIV

Kindness is unfortunately a rare attribute.  It requires that we deny ourselves in a marketing-oriented world that suggests that we focus on the things we desire.  Tissot, the watch company advertises, "Because You've Earned It”, Burger King appeals to us with the tag line “Have it your way” and for many years MacDonalds posted, “You deserve a break today”. Kindness is not random…It is a learned Christian virtue.   I enjoy the saying, “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see”.[1]

 Kindness is the outcome of a loving heart expressing the willingness to follow the teachings of Christ.  It doesn’t occur in a vacuum rather it is the action that follows a state of readiness founded in compassionate awareness and willing generosity.  We must ready ourselves to respond in terms of kindness.  The opportunity to express kindness is almost always unanticipated and inconvenient.  It is somewhat like packing an emergency first aid kit for our car.  We often can’t anticipate when we will need the resource, but we know it’s importance and we are prepared to respond.  F. Scott Fitzgerald writes, “To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.”[2]

Through our life in Christ, we are prepared by the Holy Spirit to adopt a state of compassionate awareness.   As we look across our community, we can see God’s children that are lost, hungry, stressed, afraid, and alone.  Can you remember walking by a person who was hurting emotionally, or scared, and saw the helplessness or desperation in their eyes communicated without uttering a word?  We are summoned to be understanding, gentle, kind, and humble.  We are called to put others before ourselves in the name of our Lord Jesus.

 ““Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”  Matthew 25:34-36 NIV

In the mid 1870’s the nation was still in recovery from the Civil War in the working-class neighborhoods and small towns circling Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  A bright and hardworking teenage boy from a modest family was struggling to earn enough to remain in high school selling door to door.  After days of poor sales, the young man was down to a single thin dime and had found little to eat at home.   He had committed to beg for food at the next home but when an attractive young women opened the door, he lost his nerve and simply asked for a glass of water.  The young lady sensed he was hungry and returned to door with a large glass of milk.  He thanked her and slowly drank the milk and responded, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother taught us never to accept pay for kindness.”

 Thirty years later this same man now adorned a white physicians lab coat with his name stitched on the front, “Dr. Howard A. Kelly”.  His successful career included years of ground-breaking research, the founding of the Kensington Hospital for Women and an appointment as the inaugural professor of obstetrics and gynecology at John Hopkins Hospital.[1]  As he read through a file on an incoming patient with a serious and undiagnosed illness, he pondered the name of the familiar small town and immediately jumped from his chair moving quickly to the new patient’s room.  As he peaked around the door jam, he immediately recognized the patient as the young lady that had given him the much-needed glass of milk many years before.  He quietly slipped back down the hallway to his office.

After weeks of treatment including surgery, the women recovered completely.  As was the tradition of the day, the surgeon would present his bill for services prior to the release from the hospital. As the woman studied the unopened statement, fears years of repayment and debt swept across her as she gingerly opened the envelope.  As with most of us, her gaze went immediately to the bottom of the page looking for the total cost of the surgery and the extended hospital stay. Instead of a dollar figure a hand-written note was scrawled across the bottom of the page, “Paid in full with one glass of milk, Dr. Howard Kelly.” [2]

Each day we can boldly express our faith through our acts of kindness, compassion, and caring. We need not shout our Christian beliefs, rather we can boldly communicate the love of Christ through compassionate awareness and acts of kindness. Jesus paid our bill in full.  How will you reflect the love of Christ today?

Prayer:  Jesus, we come in prayer to prepare our hearts for acts of kindness that humbly and bravely express Your teachings.  Help us to deny ourselves and to faithfully follow as disciples of the Risen Lord.  We make this prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

[1] Unknown author, (often misattributed to Mark Twain).

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10215670-to-be-kind-is-more-important-than-to-be-right.

[3] https://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/portrait/kelly-howard-atwood/.

[4] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-milk-of-human-kindness/.

The Wesleyan Bridge is written by K.B. Kelly with the Reverend Valerie Mireb and Pastor Hank Brooks as Theological Editors and Debbie Kelly as Text and Content Editor.