Little Acts of Random Kindness (Structured)

Location. Location. Location.

Usually I can be tightfisted when it comes to giving money to those who approach me for it on the street. Typically, I avoid eye contact and deny that I have any money to give away. Today when someone asked for money I relented and got on board with his request almost immediately.

I was headed to a job assignment and decided to stop in Walgreen's to pick up a can or two of Arizona tea. My favorite is Sweet Southern tea, which I drink if I must drive on long trips. But today I visualized the colorful can of diet peach tea—by drinking it I would avoid the sugar.

When I parked and started in a man approached and said something about Arizona tea and wanting a quarter. I thought for a moment he had said “I know you are going to get some Arizona tea and I would like a quarter to get some.” I was taken aback and asked him to repeat what he had said. This time it was clear that he had said nothing about what I intended, but only that he would like some Arizona tea for himself and a friend sitting nearby. I told him what I initially thought he had said (he laughed at the idea of him being a psychic), that I was just that minute headed in to get some tea, and that I would be glad to get him some too if he would go in with me to get it. When at the drink cooler I got two diet peach teas. He reached in and got a Sweet Southern tea can and inquired if he could get two. I said “sure” completely on board with helping the man and his friend in this small way.

I am, of course, discussing very small change here, but I think it is worthwhile studying the occasion since it elicited very unusual behavior from me. In the first place, the man appeared neat and clean. He did not look or smell like someone just out to get money for alcoholic beverages and was willing to say anything—no matter how disingenuous— to get it. He approached in a forthright manner. Second of all, he mentioned a can of Arizona tea—raising a clearly defined image in my mind of something directly motivating my behavior at that very instant. Next, his request was modest. I did not have to decide whether to buy a case of tea, merely a can or two. Thus, the decision did not require any “weighing of the matter” in terms of what I could afford. Too, he was graciously willing to go along with my terms in realizing his wishes—to go in with me to fetch can(s) of Arizona tea. Finally, and this may have had some subtle influence—I intended to pay by credit card, not needing to fork over immediate cash or rummage around for it. I came away feeling content with what transpired and did not feel in any way put-upon or exploited. I had made momentary contact (identified) with a stranger experiencing a shared need and common objective and took practical steps to meet them thereby increasing my own sense of self-worth. In in some ways I think this ARK points to the underlying structure of many of them.

So much of God's purpose for us is revealed through Location. Location. Location. The other day I mentioned to my son that sometimes I'm not sure of God's will for me. He looked down and pointed to my shoes. After a moment I looked up to him puzzled. He said if you want to know what God's purpose for you is, look where you're planted. 

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The Humility of God

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9: 33-35).

I imagined myself on a hillside looking up to the heavens past parting sunlit clouds and talking with God. I told God I had a few questions and he agreed to answer them.

First I ask, “God are you more powerful than me?” He answered, “Don't be silly. Of course I am more powerful than you or any mortal for I am omnipotent.”

Then I ask, “God are you wiser than me?” He answered, “Don't be silly. Of course I'm wiser than you or any mortal for I am omniscient.”

Next I ask, “God are you in more places than me?” He answered, “You are so silly. Of course I'm in more places than you or any mortal for I am omnipresent.

Finally, I asked, “God are you better than me?” Dark clouds rolled in overhead and there were deafening claps of thunder. Greatly exercised God answered; “Do you not know that God is love and love always esteems others more highly than self? Have you not read that I sent Jesus to earth as a suffering servant? There he opposed self-righteousness wherever he found it, and was crucified because others thought they were better than my only son. How long will humanity not see that humility is the keystone of all virtue and self-righteousness is the source of all sin? How long will my children preoccupy themselves with who among them is greater? The drive for status and the illusion of superiority all come from the devil and are replete with cruelty and hatred. After a long moment the dark clouds dissipated and God looked down at me and gently asked; “Do you have other questions?” I answered, “No God I don't. I am now content to live with the knowledge already given to all and made plain in the Scriptures.

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Peace for the Inquiring Mind

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV).

[Jesus said,] “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 NIV).

Great peace comes for the inquiring mind when it fully appreciates that the ways of God will always be mysterious to man. While God in one sense has let us know fully what is expected of us on earth (the Fruit of the Spirit as manifested in Christ Jesus), in another sense his ways are utterly mysterious and it is pointless—even dangerous for mental health—to strive to piece together every cause and effect of his actions on earth. The task for us is not to understand God's ways but to concentrate on God's will for our lives—to bloom where we are planted. Our prayer should always be for the Lord to spare us from intellectual arrogance and to grant us instead humility in performing our tasks on earth.

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The Difference Between Denial and Blessed Assurance

The key difference between denial and blessed assurance is that in the former instance out of fear facts are avoided or denied while in the latter case facts are fully recognized and appreciated yet faith supplants all doubt and there is complete openness to the efforts of God and man to correct the issue. From this point of view, there are no miracles for every redeeming development is fully expected and in a sense becomes inevitable. This has nothing to do with the power of the mind over body for the circle of contributors can involve many (including nonbelievers) with all human efforts being reinforced by the suffusing yet transcendent power of God. Thus, whether involving the healing of a loved one or the healing of a nation, the spiritual dimension is an indispensable and indelible element potently enacting positive change.

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The Threat Before Us

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:23-24)

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. (FDR’s First Inaugural Address).

It is again preeminently a time to speak the truth. America's great enemy today is once again fear and the chronic state of denial (and escapism) which it imposes. My readers appreciate that I have a religious bent. It is my firm conviction that the ultimate source of this fear, this denial of the truth, is the dark whisperings of the devil himself (the master of deceit and falsehood). He tells us we don't want to know the truth, that we can't handle it. That we don't have enough faith and that our faith anyway is groundless. He tells us “we don't want to go there.” I say flat-out “to hell with the devil.” It is high time we confront the devil and passionately tell him to his face that he's an abject liar and that we are on to his game-plan with its aim to destroy us.

Once, with God's help, the devil flees from us the first thing we must accept as truth is that our present system can be incredibly cruel, especially to the working poor. Without a living wage and without health benefits, we patronizingly tell them (many of whom work two jobs) to just work harder and go to night school and become a wealthy brain surgeon. We ration our health care in this way and when challenged we point to the failings of other systems rather than addressing the failings of our own. Sometimes only the remark of Christ adequately describes us--”we stain on a gnat but swallow a camel.”

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Opportunities as Acts of God

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39 NIV).

How might recalling the acts of God in your past give you courage to face the present and future? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1019).

Unquestionably one of the greatest advantages of advancing in years is that one can gain perspective over the blessings of God in one's life. The remarkable thing is that the most dicey points of decision and experience one has encountered reveal most about God's unfathomable love. The underlying purpose of events which is somewhat obscure during their enactment becomes increasingly clearer. The metaphor obtains of the gnarled tree we love to ponder that has gained through years of sometimes adverse conditions a beauty more striking than can be gained through growth in completely ideal greenhouse conditions. We identify strongly with the tree for it embodies our own conviction that challenging times imbue a strength of character and a perspective unreachable in any other way. It is God's way to provide opportunities for growth though process not magic. This is a principal difference between God as I have come to know him and a childlike belief in Santa Claus.

In the following video clip from Evan Almighty the viewer of the movie knows that the waiter in white shirt represents God himself.

God: Let me ask you something... If some one prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God gives them courage? Or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

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What God Has Done for Me

How would you explain to a non-Christian what God has done for you? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1019).

In answering this question, the first thing to mention is that my perspectives upon all things religious have been heavily influenced by Jesus Christ. Jesus showed clearly the practical implications of worshiping a loving God. Perhaps the first lesson to absorb is that living for God means that one's life will be filled with opposition and conflict since sin is fixed within the texture of life.

Anyone who attempts to follow their best lights and live a righteous life will unavoidably come to have a profoundly different perspective than one based upon the prevalent passions of the world. When we pray that God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, we thereby are enlisting in warfare. And what are the enemies of God? They include selfishness, self-righteousness, cruelty, falsehood, lust, idol worship, greed, hypocrisy, callousness, hubris, and spiritual blindness—all the things that Jesus railed against and eventually got him crucified. To be a Christian is to find oneself upon the firing line and to be deeply counter-cultural in decisive ways.

If one were to find themselves comfortable and content and in large agreement with the status quo, then they can be assured they have been co-opted by a sinful world. If they find themselves closely identifying with the powers that be on earth, then they are not identifying with the heavenly powers. For life as we know it is deeply different from the way God would have it. What Jesus taught is that other-worldly values and concepts have their direct claim on practical, everyday existence. Another way of putting it is that Godly abstractions [the fruit of the Spirit] are to be transformationally applied to the concrete factors of life here and now. And this is not merely private and personal, but replete with social implications. One of the key things that got Jesus crucified was not a reclusive, private, ascetic bent; but his critique of the powerful and influential and his overturning the tables that represented business-as-usual.

So worshiping God with a Christian spirit clearly has immediate, practical implications. But it also endows us with a long-term perspective giving life meaning and purpose. It gives us, within the whirly burly of life, a compass yielding strength, endurance, certitude, and peace that transcends understanding. It yields spiritual harmony amidst incredible turmoil and strife. It yields, in a phrase, an inner quietness, a “blessed assurance.” Our touchstone is the Holy Spirit that guides us in disciplines of love. All other laws—rules and regs—pale in comparison.

The worship of God also gives us a servant's heart. We are to humbly love and serve God and man. Confidence in God is markedly different from “standing tall.” It is, rather, standing unflinchingly humble and true. It is to be blessed by the grace of God.

Finally, God's love gives us freedom. The security of God's love frees us—as it freed Jesus—from the incessant search for human endorsement and approval. Of course, Jesus had his disciples and one especially that he loved. In this sense, I guess we can say that he needed and enjoyed human friendship. But he was willing to face the fact that even his closest friends would abandon him upon his arrest by authorities. He understood well the frailties of the human frame, but rested secure in the love of his Heavenly Father. Even death could not separate him from the love of God.

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