A few days ago my roommate took me out to Grand River (a central street in Lansing, lined with many shops and restaurants). The plan was to grab an ice cream cone and window shop for a while. We piled in her car and drove to the ramp. She paid for parking. We walked around the corner to Swirlberry (new frozen yogurt place in EL) and loaded up our cups with pomegranate yogurt, raspberries and white chocolate chips (you can’t beat it!) and she paid for my ice cream, too. It was after 7pm; most of the shops had closed for the day. One of the few places still open was the used bookstore. Ice cream in one hand, sunglasses in the other, we ventured in.
We browsed around for an hour or so–making fun of romance books with “macho men” on the covers, checking out the Disney shelf, spending most of our time in the kids mystery book section. Did you know there are books you can read that allow you to decide its ending? No joke! They’re so awesome! I found a 75 year old book of short, funny, children’s poems. I really liked it, but it didn’t have a price tag on the cover like the rest. I took it up to the old man at the front desk and asked. “$15.95, but for you, i’ll take $10” he told me. Sold! 🙂
After we left that store, we walked a few more blocks and found an open gift shop with air conditioning. It felt amazing!!! Suddenly we remembered: Oh no! We had left our empty ice cream cups on top of one of the book shelves! Should we go back? Jesus would have. We left the cool and comfortable air conditioning and headed back to the book store. “Back again?” the old man at the counter asked us. “Yeah, we left our empty cups on one of your shelves. We’ll go throw them away. We’re really sorry.” The man’s jaw hit the floor. The younger employee standing beside him had a similar expression on her face as well. We retrieved the cups and tossed them in the trash up front. The old man thanked us, still a little puzzled at what had just happened. He then asked if we wanted coupons for the next time we came in. We graciously accepted them! Then the girl standing beside him held out a few “book store dollars” for each of us, thanking us once more. Smiling and a little shocked, we accepted those as well.
Later that night, I couldn’t get the old man out of my head. I kept thinking to myself, “Why was he so shocked at a small act of kindness? Has he never experienced kindness at his shop before? Did we really deserve those coupons and book money?” I thumbed through my Bible:
Romans 12.9 Let love be genuine.
Colossians 3.12 Clothe yourselves in kindness.
Ephesians 4.32 Be kind to each other.
Psalm 117.2 God’s loving kindness is great toward us.
Proverbs 19.22 What is desirable in a person is kindness.
Galatians 6.9 Let us not lose heart in doing good.
Proverbs 12.25 Kind words will cheer an anxious man up.
Acts 14.17 God has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness.
Galatians 5.22-23 The fruit of the spirit is…kindness…
Titus 3.4 With kindness and love of God, our savior appeared…
My roommate drove to the ramp. She paid to park. She bought our ice cream. All evening she showered me with kindness, with no expectations from me! I am now convinced that there is no such thing as a “random act of kindness”. If God says to be kind to each other, we need to plan on being kind to each other. All. The. Time. If the world, no…if Christians were kind to each other, if they didn’t lose heart in doing good, if their lives produced the fruit of kindness, they would reflect God’s loving kindness on us all–those who know God, and those who don’t. Maybe this would make God’s name a little bigger. Maybe this would make us a little smaller. Maybe this would lessen the surprised expression of old men in book shops who are used to being treated like they’re just another random face in the crowd.
Titus 3.4-7 (The Message Translation)
It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes
of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip
on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and
loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all HIS doing; we had NOTHING to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we
came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit.
Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has
restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And
there’s more life to come-an eternity of life! You can count on this.
of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip
on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and
loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all HIS doing; we had NOTHING to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we
came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit.
Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has
restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And
there’s more life to come-an eternity of life! You can count on this.
Where did we go wrong? Why is simple kindness such a rarity? God is kind. He’s in us. You’ve seen, in Titus 3 alone, what His kindness can do. Will you let Him unleash it through you?
