For the past several weeks we have been talking about this season of Lent as a “quite not yet” time when we see hints of new life but not full completion, as we prepare for Easter. Today, let’s look at kindness as a practice that God asks of us, and that we can contemplate and put into practice during this time.

Kindness is a word that is often misunderstood and misused in our everyday lives. We may think that someone who displays kindness is weak. We may think kindness became a thing that went out the door with the advent of social media. We may say it’s a kindness to deliver a hard truth to someone in a deliberately hurtful way because it is necessary “to wake them up” and pay attention to what we are saying.

All of these things may be true at one point or another, but we know there is a great deal of hope in “doing” kindness.

We’ve all heard about those people that are everywhere on social media these days. These are people who it seems go out of their way to make other human beings hurt and miserable through the things that they do and say.

What counteracts this are the many kind people that exist in the world. God must have put many of those kind people in the Fort Stockton and Big Bend area!

A kind word or a kind gesture to someone can make a huge difference in their day. Who knows what difficulty that person may be experiencing, and that kind act or word makes such a difference to them. Kindness might be something like helping a neighbor get groceries if they aren’t doing well. It might be writing an actual handwritten note to your spouse, telling them how much you appreciate them.

It might be smiling at that crotchety co-worker who never seems to have anything nice to say.

Maybe if we had more kindness, things would be a bit better this Lent, and a bit better in the world at large!

Kindness is not weakness. Kindness can be spread on social media. Kindness is finding a better way to talk about a hard truth and still get someone to listen. After all, the prophet Micah tells us, “He has told you O mortal, what is good and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (NRSV Bible) So, let us love and do kindness now.