Risen & Rooted

We recently changed phone carriers and I’m always amazed at all the perks you get just for switching (even after having done this a million times 😑). Gift cards, credits, discounts, accessories! They know just what to say to reel you in. It’s great for the first few months, then you become one of the regulars. No more perks. Just another customer with a high bill and less than stellar customer service….

Kind of reminds me of how I tend to treat the closest people in my life. The ones I claim to love dearly usually get the plain old rough side of me. The fleshly side of me. The real me. When I meet a stranger, I put my best foot forward. “Watch what you say. Be kind. Give them the benefit of the doubt. ” Nothing wrong with those things, but why do those closest to me not get those perks? Why should a total stranger get the best of me? Why do those that know me LEAST get my best, but my family gets treated like just another old customer? What’s wrong with this picture?

The issue is simply this – It’s the difference between operating under the influence of flesh versus the Holy Spirit. Kindness that switches off and on from one person or group to the next is not kindness – it’s favoritism, it’s preferential treatment – it’s sin. Jesus said “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God, for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”(Ephesians 4:32). He didn’t tell me to pick and choose who gets kindness and who doesn’t. He doesn’t operate that way, so neither should I.

So convicting. I want those nearest and dearest AND those who don’t know me to get the best part of me…CHRIST. On my own, I’m only “kind” to those who are nice to me. On my own, I’m only “kind” if I FEEL like it. On my own, I’m “kind” when it suits my needs or when it’s going to benefit me. Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, my “kindness” isn’t kindness at all – it’s my flesh playing favorites. What a deception…..

Real kindness, sacrificial kindness, which is the heart of Christ, begins at home with the ones closest to us and overflows to all others outside of those walls. Jesus said in Colossians 3:12 -13 to “put on therefore, as the elect of GOD, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering; forbearing one another , and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as CHRIST forgave you, so also do ye.” It’s easy to be kind to people I’ve never fought with! Oh, that l would be more like Jesus!

My desire? For my husband, my daughter, my family AND THEN those beyond, to get the best of me – Christ Jesus.

More like the Master I would ever be,

More of His meekness, more humility;

More zeal to labor, more courage to be true,

More consecration for work He bids me do.

“More Like the Master”, hymn by Charles H. Gabriel, 1906