Kindness Refreshes the Soul

Have you ever thought about the importance of kindness and how kindness refreshes us? My name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian channel and I want to talk about that very thing today, the virtue of kindness and how it has the possibility to refresh our very soul. Came across a story a number of years ago about two boys that were in high school. I'm not sure exactly what year it was for them. I think it was somewhere around their sophomore, maybe junior year. And one of the boys had just had enough after, after school one day, he took everything out of his locker and he was struggling to carry it home. And he had so much stuff that he just dropped some of it. Well, as chance would have it, another boy from his class saw him drop that, and he ran and helped him pick it up, and they got into a conversation, found out that they were in the same class, and, and got to visiting, and, and the one who had helped asked him, The boy who had loaded all the stuff up from his locker left. And, and the two boys really never had a lot of contact after that. I mean, they would see each other every once in a while. And, and they, they had built at least a small friendship based on that one day. But after graduation, after several years passed and they both graduated, the one boy who had dropped all of his stuff found the other boy who had helped him. And, and he said, I just wanted to shake your hand before we depart and never see each other again. And I wanted to ask you if you remembered that day that you helped me. And the other boy did, and, and, and the one who had received the help said this, you saved my life that day. What you, what you didn't know, what you couldn't have known was I was so depressed. I was just ready to give up and I had actually taken everything out of my locker and I was going to take it home and then once I got home I was going to kill myself. Well, think about that. That, that boy who just did a natural thing to, to, to help somebody who had stumbled under a load and, and then who invited him to, to enjoy a Coke and, and some games could have had no idea about, about the other young man and, and how depressed he was. But that small act of kindness literally saved a life that day. Have you ever thought how much? power you have if you would just be kind to other people. You have the power to change their lives or at least help steer it in a little bit better direction than maybe they were going. It doesn't take a big investment. It doesn't take a big effort. All it takes is a little kindness, but kindness refreshes the soul. And in this case, we see where it literally changed a young boy's life, gave him a lifeline, so to speak, because somebody had shown him kindness. It's been a number of years ago now, but I remember a song that came out, a popular song on the radio by Annie Murray. It was entitled something like, like we sure could use a little good news today. And, and in that song, she talked about how, how she woke up in the morning, her kids had the, the morning news on, and they were talking about fighting, and they were talking about different wars, and, and bad things that were happening around the world. And then she talked about the fact that there was still the morning paper that was rolled up in the rubber band, and she knew that the headlines would talk about the, the wars and the difficulties that were going on. And she concluded the, the initial thought with this, we sure could use a little good news today. And then she said that she knew though the next time she turned the news on it would just be bad things all over again and how she longed just one time to hear the anchor say, we don't have much bad to say today and how nobody was shot in anger and nobody burned a single building down and then how Instead of talking about bad things, they could talk about good things, like who won at the county fair, or how people were busy cleaning up the air, and how people cared for each other. And how everybody loved everybody in the good old USA. And she concluded we sure could use a little good news today. Well, we're probably not going to affect the national news, are we? We're probably not going to ever get, influence them in any way to report anything but bad. Or bad about whatever. They want you to think as bad. And they're probably never going to tell you a good thing about anything other than what they want to influence you towards. But the fact is that you and I have the ability to change people's lives. The news is just that. They ought to call it the bad news, shouldn't they? But we can bring good news into people's lives. As a matter of fact, we Christians have the best news, don't we? The good news of Jesus Christ. It's a saving message. It's a message of grace and hope and salvation. People need that good news, don't they? That's the good news that refreshes people. I like the, the, the book of, of Ruth, the story of Ruth. If you haven't read it for a while, I would recommend you do. It's just a four chapter book in the Old Testament. It's a true story about a woman named Naomi who had two daughter in laws, one of whom was Ruth, and two, of course, two sons and a husband. But as things happened, Tragedy struck and Naomi's husband died as well as both of her sons Well, her daughter in law's they they and her were were in their grieving period their mourning period and and and the the daughter in law Said they would stay with Naomi and Naomi said no. I don't have anything for you Even, even if I could get married today, would you wait until I had a son and he grew up so you could marry him? She said, go back to your hometown and, and marry from, from your own people. So one of the daughter in laws did just that, or at least she left, but, but the other daughter in law, Ruth, said, I'll never leave you. And so Ruth and Naomi went back to their hometown, to, to Naomi's hometown. And, and when they got there, people heard the story of Ruth's kindness in staying with Naomi. And there was one man in particular who had learned of, of this because, because Naomi's husband was, was a kinsman of his. And, and he was really impressed. Boaz was a well to do man, and they were about to have the harvest. I think it was the barley harvest. And, and so, so he had heard about the story already. And, and when Naomi heard that they were harvesting the barley, she told Ruth, go and glean at the edge of his field. Back during that time in Israel, one of the things they did was they never gleaned up to the very edges. They left that for the poor. And so, and so, Ruth went out to go and harvest some of that barley at the edges of Boaz's field. And when Boaz saw who it was, learned who it was, he, he told her, you don't, don't need to go to the edge of the field. You might be in danger over there. You harvest with my harvesters. And if anybody says anything to you, just have them come to me. And so Ruth was able to get a big harvest that day and she was able to take home much barley to Naomi and Naomi was just stunned she was able to get so much grain for them and of course as they're preparing the grain she asked about it and she found out that it was Boaz. Well as time went by, as the harvest came to an end, Boaz took notice of, of Ruth, or Ruth took notice of Boaz and, and, and Boaz just told Ruth I am a kinsman redeemer. They had certain responsibilities to their kinsmen to promote their line. And if they had a widow to marry that widow, but Boaz pointed out, there's one who's closer than I, and I'm going to talk to him this very day. And if he's not willing to marry you, I'll, I'll do that. And, and so that's exactly how it happened. The other one wasn't willing to, to marry Ruth, but Boaz was. And, and in this story. When Naomi was learning of the kindness of Boaz as they were just beginning to, as Ruth was just beginning to go and take part in the harvest, Naomi said this to Ruth, talking about Boaz, May he be blessed by the Lord. whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi attributed Boaz's kindness to the very source of, of that kindness, God. And, and when you think about it, when people are kind to you, they really are reflecting God in a way. And when you're kind to others, you really are reflecting God in that way. And so when people are kind to us, we ought to be grateful to God, not only for those people, but the fact that God is exercising his kindness for us. through them. There's a, there's a passage in Proverbs chapter 31 that talks about a virtuous woman and how rare a virtuous woman or a truly virtuous woman is just like it's very rare for to have a truly virtuous man. But one of the attributes of the truly virtuous woman is this, it's found in Proverbs 31, 26. And it says the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. One of the things people of high character and Christian virtue do is they have a teaching of kindness when they speak to other people. It's that kindness that refreshes our lives. You know how it is. Maybe you've had a bad day and somebody comes up with a kind word and not just a mere platitude, but, but, but they're genuinely concerned for you, or they have a genuine word of encouragement for you. And, and you know how that can just buoy your spirits. You may have been down prior to meeting them, but now you're up because that kindness has refreshed your spirit. We have that power to refresh one another with this godly attribute. The question is, do we do it? I've mentioned before, I live in a small town. It's a town now of about, I think the population sign going out, out of town says 602. And, and so it's not a very big town. I grew up in, in big cities or around big cities. So, Just outside of Denver and just outside of Seattle and Houston and then Denver again and then lived in a town that had about 50, 000 people in it after that before we moved to this little town. And one of the things that I found once we moved here was I never wanted to leave. because everybody seemed to know everybody and everybody seemed to be concerned about everybody. It's true. There are gossips in small towns just like there are in other towns, but there's also a lot of people who are truly concerned about you, who want to know how you're doing, who want to hear from others that you're doing well, and when you're not, they'll be praying for you. It's an amazing thing to live in a community of of kind people. I never want to live anywhere else than, than happy Texas for that reason. And while it's true that from time to time they lose their kindness and maybe slip a little bit. That's really not their practice, and, and we know, we understand one another, and we understand if somebody was unkind, who's usually kind, that they'll, they'll get back to, to their roots. They'll get back to, to solid mooring, and they'll become kind again, and we can wait for them to do that, because we've been unkind ourselves at times. Maybe we've had too much stress, or too much pressure, or whatever the situation was. So even when we're taken back a little bit because somebody is unkind to us, we still remember those who are, who are kind to us most of the time. And so we return the kindness by being patient with them. And then we enjoy that kindness once again when they come to themselves. And we're refreshed by that, aren't we? In Micah chapter 6a, he has told you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. To do justice and love kindness. Some versions say mercy, but it's talking about the same thing. It's, it's a, it's a a virtue that, that comes from the heart. We do want justice in this world. We want evil to be. punished because evil won't stop otherwise. But we temper it with mercy and we temper it with kindness. And God loves kindness. And in fact, as Micah 6, 8 says, he requires kindness of us. Are you kind to other people? If you're not, do you realize that you're going outside of God's commandments? That you're going out of outside of what he requires for you, that there is no way for you to, to meet the, the other requirements in that verse, because you can never walk humbly with your God. You can never live in a humble way if you are unkind in, in heart, because nobody who walks. Humbly, in God's way, who tries to be pleasing to God would ever continually be unkind. And the rare occasions that they are, they'll, they'll correct that, because that's part of our humble walk with God. But again, I want to point out that God requires it. And then, of course, there's that passage in Ephesians. It's found in, or excuse me, in Galatians. It's found in Galatians chapter five. And, and it talks about the fruits of the spirit. And in verse 22, it talks about one of those fruits of the spirit is kindness. When you're a Christian, when you, when you have the Holy Spirit of God within you, because you are a temple to the Holy Spirit, and when you become a a Christian, when you obey the gospel. You receive not only forgiveness of your sins, but also the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's like planting a good seed in good soil, because now you have a good heart. And part of the fruit that that good seed will produce is kindness. And so if you're living as a Christian, if you're doing your best, even though you mess up sometimes, in a general manner, you'll be kind to other people. That'll, that'll be your practice. And, and you'll find it's a really good life when you treat people that way. Doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you isn't just a commandment. It's a really good idea that pays great benefits. And we all need kindness. We all need a little good news in our lives. There's a fact about this world and it's that we just seem to be getting meaner and meaner and meaner. Isn't it refreshing to know that there's some who have this fruit of the spirit, this seed of kindness within them, that they don't keep the fruits of to themselves, but they pass that kindness along and share it with other people who then can have their souls refreshed by this marvelous trait of God. Are you kind? Well, we, we could all do a little bit better. Couldn't we? We could all be a little bit more I believe intentional. in our kindness, because we know how important it is to us. Kindness has literally saved some people's lives, and kindness has surely saved some people's souls. Do you have kindness in your life? And, and isn't it true that if, even if we can answer yes, that we could still have a little bit more of that precious fruit of the spirit, because that fruit of kindness will surely refresh others just as it refreshes us. We can't do much better than that while we're here on earth serving him, can we? That's the message for today. I hope it gives you something to think about, but I appreciate your listening today. Hope you'll come back next time the video comes out, but until next time, I truly do pray that God will bless you richly as you seek to serve him and as you seek to include kindness as a main part or one of the main parts of your service to him. God bless.