By Danny Minton

Fair Warning: If you read the rest of this week’s post, you will be required to carry out a task. The task won’t cost you any money, and how much of your life it consumes depends on you. I do not know how many people read my post weekly, but if everyone who reads this will fulfill the task I’m asking, it might help change the world. So, before you read any further, are you willing to do what I will ask of you? Don’t worry. I’m not trying to sign you up to sell Amway or any other product. However, I promise you will be blessed if you do what I ask at the end.

I came across a story, which I’ll paraphrase, of a preacher and his son planning to pass out fliers promoting a special service at their church. The little boy was excited to pass out the fliers telling people to come and learn more about Jesus. Saturday morning came, and so did the rain. His father told him that because of the rain, they wouldn’t be able to go around and invite people to the service. Undeterred by the weather, the young boy gathered the fliers and began going door to door, ringing the bell and inviting people to come and hear the story of how Jesus loved them. 

The following day, the minister stood before the congregation and reminded them of the story of Jesus. He spoke on Jesus’ love for everyone. In the end, he invited people to share their stories of how Jesus had touched their lives. Quietly, a woman nobody knew approached the microphone. She spoke of how her life had been one causing her deep depression. She had become so low that she decided to commit suicide. She told the story of how she was sitting in her chair with a bottle of pills to end her misery when someone rang her doorbell several times. She went to the door, and standing in the rain was a little boy who handed her a flier inviting her to come and hear about the love of Jesus. “That little boy,” she said, “saved my life.”

Jesus constantly and quietly changed the lives of people who needed something to give them hope. Most of what he did we don’t even know about. John closes his Gospel account with these words, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”  John 21:25 (NASB) We do read where He stopped in a crowd to help a woman, He knelt by a man and healed his blindness, He touched a leper and healed him, He healed the son of a crying mother, He had supper with a little man he saw in a tree, He held and blessed a child, He fed a hungry crowd, and He promised a thief, life. These and many other actions were not done out of a desire to be exalted but out of the kindness of His heart. When Jesus saw someone, He didn’t see them by how they looked on the outside as much as he viewed their hearts. He viewed them with eyes of love and compassion. People’s lives were changed by the simple acts of kindness that Jesus performed. They were simple to Jesus but “made the day” for those who received the gift of kindness. 

Several years ago, I read a little pamphlet titled “21 Days Makes a Habit.” The thought behind it was that if you do something for 21 days, it will be ingrained in your being to keep performing the act from then on. Okay, you’ve read this far, so here is the task I’m asking you to accomplish. For the next 21 days, make it a point to do one act of kindness for someone else. It can be as simple as sending a text or card to lift someone’s spirits. Say something kind to a server or someone helping you at the store. Grab someone’s shopping cart so they don’t have to walk back to return it. Compliment someone on their job. I could go on, but you get the point I’m trying to make. Spend the next 21 days looking at people the way Jesus looked at them. Look for opportunities to share the story of Jesus, not with words, but actions. If there are ten people who read this and put it into action, it means that in the next three weeks, we will have touched the lives of over 200 people. Twenty-one days seem like a lot, but start one day at a time, then add another and another. Soon, you will find that kindness is not something you have to remind yourself to do, but it will become a habit.

Showing kindness is one of the simplest acts we can do but one of the most powerful. We may never know how our acts of kindness can change the lives of people who have given up hope. 

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ