Kindness part 4
I think what we want from others is really what we want from ourselves. We want others to be kind, because really our desire is OUR kindess. We want the light to shine, but we have a hard time believing it comes from within. We think the light needs to shine ON us, when really it shines OUT of us! That's why the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Love) seems so upside down and backwards. We are thinking externally, when we need to live from within. It's like the Wizard of Oz. Everything we're looking for is found inside. But when we run around like chickens with their heads cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places, we miss out on what's already available to us. We rob ourselves from the gift we've been given by trying to enter the sheepfold any other way but the door. The door is Jesus. The door is the heart. It's all about what's in your heart. And what's in your heart? Love! (What else?) And when we know and believe that love is in there, when we fill ourselves with what we've been filled with by letting Daddy love us, it comes out. Naturally. Then we can stop trying to get something from others and we can start sharing what we've got WITH others. I call it receiving and releasing. And when it comes to dealing with other people I think it's vitally important to release our desire: our kindness. To be useful to others. To understand that everybody is going through "stuff." And we don't even really need to know what someone's particular "stuff" is. If we DO know there's a good chance we've been through the same thing and can be REALLY useful by helping them through it. But I'm talking about random acts of kindness. I'm talking about doing small things with great love. You don't have know someone's whole story to know what they need. They need love. And sometimes that means an ear to listen. Or a shoulder to cry on. Sometimes it means just spending a little bit of time with someone. (I actually think that's a really big one. Because, especially in this day and age of everything being online, I think people are lonlier than ever. We lose ourselves in crowded rooms because we're isolated by the internet. Real human connection with another person is increasingly rare, but vitally important.) And the thing about these small acts is that while it might not feel like you're changing the world, you just might be changing one person's world. And then, who knows? They might go on to do great things. They might be empowered by the love you give, and they might give love on such a grand scale that neither you nor they would have ever imagined it. And all you thought you were doing was being kind. Putting someone else's needs above your own. (And really fulfilling your own need in the process.) Guys, love is not about getting. We already have everything we need. Love is about giving. Because love IS giving. God so loved the world He GAVE His only Son. Jesus GAVE His life both for us, and to us. The kindest, most loving thing you can do is give yourself to someone. But that's impossible if you're focused on getting. That's impossible if you think you have nothing to give. So first we must receive. Then we have something to release. You can't give what you don't have. But when you know Daddy loves you, that's when you have an infinite source of love to give. That's when kindness isn't a struggle, but is our very nature. The New Nature of the New Man. The love nature!