Kindness at Christmas

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas!

As I sit quietly this morning and reflect back on the year, my summary is that our world has been anything but kind. We have seen: the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East intensify, politics get personal and racism grow across Australia, brutal attacks on social media, road rage increasing and more. And that’s all just looking out onto others. Closer to home, for most of us, me included, we don't need to venture far beyond our network of relationships to remember the moments when we have not shown kindness to others this year.

Now I don't mean to put you in a dour mood at this festive time of year but it is worth pondering what life would be like if we were all able to be kinder?

Of course, that is easier said than done. Kindness does not come naturally or regularly from the human heart. We know that not just from experience but also by the fact that it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) - when we trust Christ and the Spirit indwells us, one of the things he does is drive kindness in our hearts because in our natural state it’s just not there. So while we might be able to be kind from time to time, only in God’s strength can we actually become kind.  

The fact is, real enduring kindness requires intervention from the outside, both from God’s Spirit and also his Son stepping into our mean world, showing us a different way, and doing it, climactically at the cross, for our eternal salvation and joy.

So kindness toward each other begins with God’s kindness toward us in Christ. Only in Jesus can we really find the resources to overcome evil with good, triumph over annoyance with patience, and rise above meanness with kindness.

In other words, the heart of how we become kinder — not with free, random, annual kindness, but with strong, genuine, Christian kindness — is knowing and enjoying the kindness of God toward us. Fortunately, the kindness of God has appeared! (Titus 3:4)

Christmas is about all sorts of things for all sorts of people. You can perhaps sum it up by saying it is a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon but it is also about family. Reconnection. Hope. Thanksgiving. Gift giving. Gathering. For some of course it is also a sad and difficult time filled with memories of things that have gone wrong and ways you wish things were different. Even big Christmas smiles can be little more than wafer thin veneers. It truly is a complex time.

So, my question to you is this. What would happen if you showed some deeper kindness this Christmas? If you reacted more slowly, spoke more warmly, shared more deeply, loved more creatively. It just might be that hope and harmony can be fuelled by thoughtful kindness and that God’s love will shine more brightly in and from you this Christmas.  

My prayer is that kindness might flow from and through you in the same way it has flowed from and through Jesus. 

Again, Merry Christmas - and see you in church over the next week or in the new year.