Quotes about Kindness

One man told me the most helpful person during his long illness was an office colleague who called every day, just to check. His visits, usually twice a week, never exceeded fifteen minutes, but the consistency of his calls and visits became a fixed point, something he could count on when everything else in his life seemed unstable.

Never do I see Jesus lecturing people on the need to accept blindness or lameness as an expression of God's secret will; rather, he healed them.

We respond to healing grace by giving it away.

Contrary to nature's rule of "survival of the fittest," we humans measure civilization by how we respond to the most vulnerable and the suffering.

As a counterbalance to the list of seven deadly sins, the church in the Middle Ages came up with a list of seven works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captive, bury the dead.

What would it look like if a Christian took literally Jesus' sweeping commands and acted on them. What would a Good Samaritan look like today, in urban America?

Love one another Forgive one another Pray for one another Bear one another's burdens Be devoted to one another Regard one another as more important than yourself Do not speak against one another Do not judge one another Show tolerance for one another Be kind to one another Speak truth to one another Build up one another Comfort one another Care for one another Stimulate one another to love and good deeds

no one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask the question, "Who helped you most?" Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whenever needed, who listened more than talked, who didn't keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried.

The world starves for grace.

Gordon MacDonald said, the world can do anything the church can do except one thing: it cannot show grace.

In sum, I would far rather convey grace than explain it.

What seems like sacrifice becomes instead a kind of nourishment because dispensing grace enriches the giver as well as the receiver.