Kindness: Gather Some Perspective

Let me ask you a question.

What would you respond to better as a human being, kindness or criticism?

The answer may be obvious, but why then are we always so cruel to one another? Why do we not treat others as we would like to be treated?

A lot of times we may think our criticisms are constructive, but I feel at times this may do more harm than good. There is such a thing as tough love, but I feel like there is a line that we too often cross. We can rebuke one another with kindness, in a way the other knows we care for them and their best interest.

Kindness and encouragement, I have found, do much more for people than any other alternative.
When we seek to build one another up, selflessly, people flourish and, usually, the loving kindness is reciprocated. On the flipside, when we criticize each other, people are left to wither and their talent is wasted. I wonder how many people could have changed the world for better, until someone shot them down..

We are all too quick to judge. It comes easier than the alternate because I believe we look for other's flaws instead of their qualities. We eagerly await them to fail so we can point out how they failed and bring them to our level.

We do not know what others are going through at any given time. We should know each other better than we do, but we never take the time to dig deep with one another. We often times keep one another at arm's length because we fear what others will think about us. We look at others with a skewed lense because it makes us feel better about how awful we are as people most of the time.

We instead need to shift our focus to the good in each other. If we all do this; magic happens. The impossible becomes possible. We serve to help each other succeed and, therefore, everyone ends up succeeding in their own ways for the betterment of humanity.

Lastly, it is said that kindness leads to repentance. One of the hardest things to do is to forgive someone who has wronged us. I believe choosing to love our enemy (someone who has wronged us in some way), is the best route to repentance and reconciliation from said enemy.

'But I do not want to be reconciled to my enemy!' you may say.

I say, 'Life is too short to remain in contention with one another.'

Be the better person, swallow your pride, and humbly return your enemy's attacks with love. You will be amazed the effect this has on someone. After all, our enemy is most likely hurting worse than we are and are just acting out of their own hurt.

We are all hurting in one way or another, just like the next person.

If we choose to take the time to really know one another; we will learn we are more alike than we thought. It is time consuming, yes, but the deep relationships we could forge will make it worth the effort in the long run.

Let us all choose to love one another with long suffering in the hope that we will all help one another live the best lives we have to the, yet unrealized, potential we have to live.

What Does It Mean to Have Faith?

Sometimes it scares me to think that my whole life and the decisions I make every day are based off of the words of one man who lived thousands of years ago.

The Christian faith is entirely based on believing this one man is good to his word, but I do not think this is such a stretch to believe in.

Every day we take people at their word, until they break it.

Some people are good to their word and, therefore, trustworthy.

Others have proven the opposite, and it takes a long time to regain the faith we had in them from the start.

Sometimes regained faith in someone never happens.

The fact remains, however, that we always put our faith in several different people every day, and if they fail us, than we no longer trust them.

The difference between me and my non-Christian friends is that I continue to choose every day to believe this one man's words.

Recently, I have decided to read all the words recorded by this one man alone.

I have not begun, to be honest, but I am very interested to see exactly all that this man said and chose to leave unsaid.

I do know he often went against the religious norm of his time and that his example still challenges all who believe in him to this day.

Every day we live by faith, whether we think we are or not; whether we believe in God or not.

We can count on the sun rising. We believe in wind, though we cannot see it, because we can feel it and see evidence of it among the trees. We also know the moon and the stars will be in the night sky, as they always have been. Et cetera.

If we think about the Christian faith, it really does not require much of us. It requires faith, of course, but that should not be too hard for us since we already put faith in a lot of different things, and people, every day.

Jesus Christ ascended into heaven after raising Himself from the dead a couple thousand years ago (This I have taken on faith.), but He has yet to accomplish all He said before He left this Earth.

While He was here, on Earth, He proved Himself trustworthy. Therefore, I have personally chosen to believe He will continue to be good to His word.

All that is really expected of every one is to continue to trust that He will be good to all He said before He left this Earth.

Jesus Christ pushed against the religious norm of His time, therefore, I too will push against the religious norm of my time, as long as it clashes with anything that He said.

We all choose to follow something, or someone, and I have chosen to put my faith in the man Jesus Christ.

I believe you should too.

Brokenness

The brokenness we see in our world, mirrors the brokenness within ourselves, yet we often ignore the latter in trying to fix the former. 

Most often we disregard that which is broken in us, or we choose, instead, to numb ourselves to it in search of escape. 

This ignorance causes us, unknowingly or not, to sow more broken seeds to the world, thus creating the viscous cycle we so desperately want to remedy.

Rarely does the brokenness we see around us magnify that which is within our hearts and we take notice. 

To those in which this does happen, consider it a gift. You have come to realize the real source of all that is wrong in the world.

We are a broken people.

We must look upon that which is wrong within us and, instead of running from it, we should seek to rectify it. 

We all should seek to renew that which is broken in ourselves first and foremost. 

Once this is done, we must then pursue helping others heal from their own seen, or unseen, brokenness because we ourselves have first come to understand what it means to be broken and have found the solution to becoming whole. 

For many of us, our brokenness is different, but for a lot of us it may also be the same. This is why we not only need to face our own brokenness, but once we find healing we should seek to help those who may be broken just like us. 

Healing may come differently for different people and many of us know too well time does not always heal all wounds. 

I personally have found my hope and healing in the man Jesus Christ and believe Him to be the only true path to complete wholeness. 

For some that may not be what you want to find wholeness from, but this should not deter you from seeking healing for yourselves and then for others. Sans Jesus, do what you can with what you have and then choose help others wade through their mess as well. 

Once we all put this to practice, all that is wrong in the world should slowly, but surely, become mended.