The picture below has a good sentiment. But for me, I cannot apply that to my life. Because I know that I am not strong, not wonderful, and not enough! Those things are facts about me.
I know what they mean though, and agree with that…but for me I would say this: Believe that the Father is strong, and that Jesus is wonderful, and that Mama is enough!
Now THAT’s a sentiment that I can get my teeth into.
So it drives me crazy when I hear folks speak of performing a “random act of kindness”!! They do not understand the nature of random, and the nature of kindness.
Oh, I know what they mean to say…they are advocating the being kind to anyone you meet with no thought of gain or profit to yourself. A great sentiment and I affirm it, and aspire to it as well!
BUT: if it is “random”, then why does their need to be an exhortation to do it? Does not the exhortation itself, if heard, processed, received and acted upon obliterate randomness? Randomness is mindless, complete and utter chance happening regardless of if there is a consciousness aware of it and witness…or not.
I submit it is impossible for a human being to do anything random, ever. I think that our very humanness eliminates “random” from possibility. Now, things can happen to us in a way that is, if not random, at least very close to it…but what we do about it, how we receive them, or react to them, all that involves choice.
And here is another thing…why is there even a need to exhort one another to be kind in the first place? I think it is because it is not the natural thing for us to be inherently kind. In fact, it is in many ways unusual, or we wouldn’t feel so great when someone is kind to us.
Kindness: it is a conscious choice to treat someone in a way that is higher, better, more loving…it is noble, and thus rare and admired when it is seen or experienced. Nothing. Random. About. It.
Let me add my exhortation…love everyone whom you are privileged to meet…treat them better than yourself, and prefer them and their needs to your own. Do not just love those who love you, or be kind to those who are kind to you…anyone can do that. But aspire to be kind to the stranger, the alien and fatherless, the widow and those who mourn.
True Kindness is measured by what you do for the ones you have absolutely no chance to benefit from in return.
No get out there and…
BE.
KIND!
Love, Charissa
But in the aftermath,
emptied and drained,
but strangely at peace
and still…
…I ponder new spaces,
discover new places,
and watch hard
for Grace’s Hand
and Heart
And Healing.
She specializes in negative space,
and the restoration of Majesty.
Yeah, it’s happened for a long time…
I don’t know which thief gained first access.
The Jack of Hearts? Or the King of Clubs…
those dudes dogged my footsteps
and stuck to me like
rabid paparazzi, snapping, clicking…
…and fracking, injecting me
with insistent agendas and curses.
They smell my weak places,
with x-ray eyes
they trap my heart with maps.
Except in their world,
I am not round, but flat,
and they fear my edges.
Probes, from eyes, from words,
from thought and greedy thirst
force their way in, and in, and then
pressure, violent floody-assaults,
on my detailed and nuanced delicate soul.
After awhile, the floods drain,
God only knows where, and leave
me blared and blasted,
blue and without blossom,
defenseless and without means
to coalesce again.
Then they suck me dry,
of my luscious dreamy
verve and dance.
They smack their lips,
hitch up their pants,
and strut away
without a glance.
I tremble,
temblors shaking,
in a fearful trance.
And I think again about the word
…acceptance…
and listen hard for echoes
of its dead and beautiful promise.
