Faithbase

What does it look like for you to be radically kind? What are you in the worst moments of violation when somebody has just been so mean or so not okay in the way that they treat you or someone that you love? How do you show divine kindness? When Jesus talks about turning the other cheek, right, this is not necessarily a reference to physicality if somebody hits you, but the notion is if somebody insults you because if they're going to hit you, you know, on your other cheek, they actually have to backhand you, right? And it's very dismissive and very degrading type of insulting that Jesus is talking about in that space. And so what, you know, as a follower, as a Christian, as somebody who's curious about what it means to grow in God, are you somebody who's trying to practice kindness in the midst of its most difficult moments? I don't know. For me, sometimes the answer to this is unequivocally no, right? Sometimes it's about getting even. Sometimes it's about being right. Sometimes it's about winning. And so I don't really have like this massively secret, you know, big success around the notion of being able to be kind to people when they hurt my feelings or when they're mean to my kids or whatever it is. But what I do know is the more that I can at least acknowledge my feelings towards a person or towards a subject, then it gives me an opportunity to work through those feelings so I can make the decision to arrive at kindness. And I think that's kind of the biggest piece here when we talk about the fruit of the spirit is being able to feel our emotions but not be led by them. And so kindness is a great battleground to constantly be checking to see how well you are doing in bearing that fruit. Thanks so much. Have a great week.