“... it was kind of you to share my distress.”
— Philippians 4:14 (NRSV)
It was good for the Apostle Paul
to experience kindness from the church at Philippi.
He had come not so much to expect it; many of the churches he started or that
he had fostered relations with had betrayed him in one way or another. Like any
minister of the New Covenant, Paul is blessed to feel a reliable sense of trust
permeate between himself and those who caused him to rejoice—the Philippians.
Paul had experienced, as we
experience, that double kindness halves distress.
In other words, a highly
considered level of kindness (caring) lessened significantly the anxiety he
experienced. It’s like the Philippians had found creative ways of loving Paul
by reducing their burden on him and allowing him the honour of serving them in
the capacity of unreserved apostle, teacher and evangelist.
The principle holds. It’s not only
our task, but our privilege, as Christians, to double the kindness so as to halve
the other person’s distress. We are to lessen others’ burdens. Where we find
ourselves adding to the burdens of others, unnecessarily, we really must ask
ourselves if we’re remaining in the lap of God’s will.
Kindness lightens people and
brings forth creative measures that define love.
Kindness thinks of the other
person and people that much it spends itself and sacrifices, without thought
for loss. It goes out of its way without looking at the clock.
Kindness is grace and may even be
worth more than double itself when it’s deployed in real and tangible ways.
Distress, on the other hand,
weakens. It betrays the will and strength of love and seeks a much lower place
with which to operate from. Why would we add to anyone’s burden? Why would we
despise God this way?
Christians are not to buy into the
“I’m hurt” debate. If we’re hurt we deal with it and relinquish it, and we
reconcile with the Lord. One shred of bitterness in our hearts reveals we still
no longer esteem God as our Lord and the King over our lives. We cannot reject
the Lord’s commandments and still hope for intimacy with the Divine—because
it’s relational.
Kindness, on the other hand, has
realised that hurt will derail us. Kindness can be re-deployed for a time onto
us who needs it. We may only add distress to someone if we’re personally
ailing.
***
Kindness reduces burdens and it’s
the investment of creative love to the ignition of joy. Our investment of
kindness infuses people with a sense of lightness in an otherwise burdensome
world. Our task—indeed, our privilege—is to double our kindness and halve
another person’s distress through what we may do.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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