Reassure Our Hearts
“Reassure Our Hearts” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! It is great to be back with you; thank you for the warmth of your welcome today. We are in the midst of a series “For the Love of God,” looking at the epistles of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and considering what our response could be to God’s great love for us through Jesus Christ. Here’s a spoiler alert if you haven’t already figured it out from listening to Jean read the text from 1 John chapter 3. What we are supposed to do for the love of God is to love one another.
I have been pulling some research material from “The Little Book of Lykke,” by Meik Wiking. Wiking is the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. Danish people rank consistently high when people around the world are asked about how happy they are. Lykke is the Danish word for happiness, and Wiking’s job is to try to understand what makes people happy. I believe there is significant overlap between characteristics of happiness and characteristics of showing God’s love to other people.
This morning I want to talk about a specific aspect of happiness: kindness. Wiking quotes this Chinese proverb:
If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
I’m here to tell you that kindness is a good thing; I suspect you already knew that. Kindness is not just what receive, and it isn’t just what we give; it is the currency of sharing. Kindness means sharing our time and ourselves, but it is also allowing others to be kind to us, and accepting that kindness with gratitude. You don’t have to take just my word for it — several people from Creekside have volunteered to share about acts of kindness they have given or received, and we’re going to hear from some of them. Before Judy Gable shares her story, I want to briefly tell about something that happened to me just a few days ago. I was in Las Vegas, and United Airlines had been sending dire warnings about winter storm Iliana, and possible travel delays. I saw that there was snow in the forecast in Northern Indiana on Wednesday. There wasn’t much I could do about my flight home, but I was dreading getting back to cold conditions and having to shovel the driveway either to get in the garage on Thursday night or to get out on Friday morning. When I got home I found that someone had shoveled my driveway — by hand. A job which I know from experience takes at least 45 min to an hour. No one has confessed, but I have a pretty good idea who it was. I could have done it, but because of someone’s kindness, I didn’t have to. It was a wonderful thing to come home to after a long day of travel. Judy Gable is going to share, followed by Brandon Borem. Judy Gable, Brandon Borem, Lodema Hoke, Bobbie Newberry
Kathy Royer asked if I would share her story. Many of you remember that Kathy was in an auto accident in October. She has no memory of the accident itself; her first memory was the shock of sitting behind the wheel of her car pointing the wrong way, and realizing the truck behind her was on fire. She didn’t know that there were downed power lines across the top of her car, only that first responders hadn’t arrived, and no one was coming to help her. After a while a woman came to her door, asked if Kathy could climb out, told her to duck down (because of the power lines) and walked with her to safety. Another woman took Kathy into her warm van until an ambulance arrived. Kathy did not get the names of either of these women, and will likely never see them again.
Thank you for all of those stories. I know there are many more out there. So here’s an interesting question: if kindness is such a good thing, how come it doesn’t happen more often? Why isn’t everybody feeling happy and fulfilled by being kind to others?
There are a couple answers to that — none of them really satisfactory. One is that there may be more kindness than we recognize or remember, because meanness hits so hard. We may deflect ten compliments but never forget the insult which landed right to the gut. The second reason is that there is a perception from some people that kindness is a sign of weakness or stupidity. Kindness is for suckers or idiots. In a study of 43 countries, people were asked what they thought it meant when someone they didn’t know smiled at them. At #1, Japan, most people thought being smiled at by a stranger meant that person was unintelligent. At the other end of that spectrum at #43, Germany had the most people who thought that smiling was friendly and intelligent. The US was 25th — in the neutral zone about smiling at people you don’t know.
1 John 3:23 says, and this is God’s commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another. Verse 18 says, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Acts of kindness — whether they are random or intentional — are a way that we follow God’s commandment, for Christ’s sake. Smiling at someone, praying for someone, going out of our way to be of service for someone who may not have “earned” it, is one small way which we live into that commandment. We risk other people thinking we’re foolish. Who does things for other people without demanding anything in return? Who makes a sacrifice with no guarantee of what they’ll get back? Who voluntarily takes on someone else’s bad choices? Who loves unconditionally? I know who does that. I bet you do, too. Believing in Jesus Christ is good — behaving like Jesus Christ Jesus is even better. Christ was more than kind — Christ had the compassion to suffer with those who suffer. That’s what it means to love as Christ loved. That is a high calling — that is God’s calling — and that is our example to follow as Christians. It may sound crazy, but happiness is not just what we keep for ourselves, happiness is what we give to others. We’ll talk more about that next week.
Thank you for all the Bless Your Heart cards you have taken; I hope you’re not keeping them for yourselves. Tomorrow, February 17, is Random Acts of Kindness Day — Brandon Borem reminds Outreach Team of this every year. We might have to start calling it Brandon Acts of Kindness Day. Any day is a good day for an act of kindness, but today I’m going to hand you an opportunity. During the last hymn we will have the service of anointing. Please come forward to the front pew . . .Anointing is for the healing of mind, body, and spirit. It is also a sign commissioning for special service. As I shared earlier, Grace Mishler is leaving for Vietnam tomorrow; anointing for her today carries the prayers of this community for safe travel as she reconnects with friends and mission partners in her work in Vietnam.