“Random acts of kindness”.
I remember hearing this term for the first time years ago. Evidently, it began in the early ’80’s when an author wrote the term on her placemat in a Sausalito restaurant.
As we think of kindness as one of the spiritual fruits given to us by God, how random can kindness actually be?
To the Creator of all kindness, this virtue is never arbitrary or accidental.
God is kind (Nehemiah 9:17). It’s just Who He is. And (so much unlike me), He is that way all the time (Isaiah 54:8).
He never wakes up in a funk. (I suppose part of that is because He never sleeps…..Psalm 121:3).
No matter what goes down or what we do, His kind nature toward us can’t be overturned (Isaiah 54:10). And because He knew that we would be so slow in realizing His kindness toward us, He sent His Son to live and breathe it in a way that we could touch and feel (Ephesians 2:7).
When we think of Jesus’ kind acts, they were never random either. Every single action was specifically directed by His Father. Matthew’s account of His feeding the five thousand included Jesus looking up to heaven before breaking and distributing the loaves (Matthew 14:19). Could it be that He was actually clarifying how the Father wanted it accomplished?
Jesus never said or did anything on His own initiative (John 12:49; 8:28).
Everything was from direct prompting of His Father.
If then our model is to be Christ, how much randomness should their be to our kindness?
Granted, sometimes the urging of the Spirit may take us by surprise. His prod may take seem unplanned to us. But, God’s ways are never random (Isaiah 55:11). And His kindnesses aren’t either.
They are regular and new every morning (Lamentations 3:22).
So then, for those of us who are His children, we should be practicing Spirit-directed acts of kindness.
Because, after all, those are in-line with the good works that God has planned for us before the catchy phrase was ever coined (Ephesians 2:10).
So tell me, what strategic acts of kindness have you witnessed lately?
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