Please and Thank You are still magic words.  I saw this on a FB post and smiled and agreed. Wholeheartedly. Please, by all means, be courteous. Thank you. After spending years trying to fight my way through the world, I learned that saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ opened doors and hearts in a different way. Ever so slowly, the Lord made me aware that every person is having a hard time, most of the time. So a little courtesy goes a long way. And…

Never sacrifice the truth for the “Being Nice” Game. This game breeds dishonesty more than it fosters compassion for others.  Instead, speak the truth in love. But how?

Through the Holy Spirit’s characteristic of Kindness.  It is truly the mark of greatness. And it is not automatically acquired but chosen.

For me, it began with an Amanda Cook song called “Kind.”  This song haunted me actually. It’s a calming melody, but eerily charged. Like a war cry ringing out of the shadows at dawn.

Then God used it to rock my world.

My daughter worked late night hours at a job I was not crazy about. I was in turmoil over what I sensed was happening in the spirit. And she and I were doing our then-typical dance of silent and suspicious.  One night she texted that she was on her way home. It was  2 a.m. and I was furious over the breach of curfew but the Spirit brought this song back to mind:

“Kind” (click to listen)

You are not a tyrant King
You do not delight in suffering

Your power doesn’t compensate for insecurity
‘Cause You are not a tyrant King

You are not an angry man
You do not treat us with contempt

Your voice is sure, Your eyes are soft, Your smile, confident

‘Cause You are not an angry man

You are kind
You are kind

Your love is a fury all its own
Sweeping the dust and turning feet towards home

Carrying the orphans and resetting broken bones
Your love is a fury all its own

Your love is powerful enough
Without the fear of punishment

I cried as I listened to it over and over. I was struck by the comparison, hearing the Spirit ask after each line:

You are not an angry man
Jana are you an angry woman?

You do not treat us with contempt
Jana do you treat people with contempt?

Your voice is sure, Your eyes are soft, Your smile, confident
Jana, are your eyes soft? Are you smiling?

I begged  God for help. I didn’t know how to do this. When she got home, I wouldn’t look at her because I knew she would see the anger in my eyes. We said goodnight and I knew I had to become different.

God had healed so much in my heart. I had made much needed progress after seasons of living in an angry home and a toxic, angry marriage,  To be honest, I felt pretty good about all that progress.

But God.

Through this song, He set up a whole new standard. His standard. More than please and thank you, at this age in my life, God told me there was a better life-giving way. Kindness.

Here was the pearl of heaven:

Your love is powerful enough
Without the fear of punishment
Your love is a fury all its own

I knew the power of fear, of intimidation, of anger. But this is a whole new revelation. There was a power to God’s love. A fury even, that worked for the good, for supernatural ends.  Kindness moved things on the earth because it was motivated by love:

Sweeping the dust and turning feet towards home  
Carrying the orphans and resetting broken bones

God’s Kindness was indeed a war cry, a supernatural power to change people’s hearts, to turn the wandering home. To reset broken bones.  Fear or hatred had never produced such beauty.  Heaven was literally released on earth through His Kindness. Punishment and judgement paled in comparison.

God was calling me, and all of us, to let Him love so powerfully through us that we wouldn’t need the fear of punishment  to get our way anymore. Ponder this.

Kindness as the weapon of choice instead of control or condemnation.

My daughter and I have had barbed conversations since this holy download. But the God-standard remains.  I can’t act like I don’t know it and neither can she. Now, neither can you.

It is profound then that “His kindness leads us to repentance.” Think of it. It required such humility and such powerful love for God to approach us without guns loaded to extend His Kindness.

Think of how He us loved us in our worst places. He disarmed us with His powerful kindness. He calls us to do the same. God is so, so good.

Kindness is not weakness or passivity.  It is the very heart of God in action.

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