The kindness of a local pastor helped lead Rosaria Butterfield to Christ.,,,
The Bible has a lot to say about kindness, but what does biblical kindness look like?
In her memoir about the journey from being a committed lesbian to a committed Christian, Rosaria Butterfield says that, as a non-Christian, her impression of Christians was that they were poor thinkers, judgmental, scornful, and afraid of diversity. After publishing a critique of an evangelical Christian group in her local newspaper, she received an enormous volume of polarised responses. Placing an empty box on each side of her desk, she sorted hate mail into one and fan mail into the other.
Then she received a letter from a local pastor. “It was a kind and enquiring letter,” she says. “It had a warmth and civility to it, in addition to its probing questions.” She couldn’t figure out which box to put the letter in, so it sat on her desk for several days. “It was the kindest letter of opposition that I had ever received,” she recalls. Its tone demonstrated that the writer wasn’t against her.
Eventually, she contacted the pastor and became friends with him and his wife. “They talked with me,” she said, “in a way that didn’t make me feel erased.” Their friendship proved to be an important part of her journey to faith.
In a similar way, our kindness should reflect the heart of our heavenly Father. Ephesians 4:32 tells us to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
How can we best maintain our peace while living in such a troubled world?
Our inner peace comes from the fact that if we are born again, Jesus lives in us and he is the Prince of Peace. He himself said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” (John 16:33).
We are told that there are around 400 verses in the Bible that mention peace which are there to guide us each day. Isaiah 26:3 is a key verse, it says, “He, (God), will keep in perfect peace all whose mind is stayed on him.” In other words, as we keep our minds focused on God and his Word instead of constantly meditating on the problems that cause us distress, we can enter a place of wholeness and soundness.
We must contend for this peace by setting aside specific times of the day for prayer, devotion, meditation, or worship to realign our minds with the thoughts of God and not our circumstances. Having those special moments with God is pivotal to maintaining our peace.
From Direction Magazine issue 238
