I don't know if you have seen the film Evans Almighty (2007), but there is a conversation in it between God (Morgan Freeman) and Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) when God asks, "How do we change the world?"
Evan replies: "One single act of random kindness at a time."
God responds by writing the letters A-R-K in the ground with a stick and says, "One Act, of Random, Kindness."
So what does it mean to be kind?
St Paul gave a definition of love as being patient and kind. Kindness is also listed as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). So at best we can see it as not just been a nice thought, but an essential ingredient to the Christian life. In fact, in the Jewish Talmud it says that the "deeds of kindness" are equal in weight to all the commandments.
Thankfully Jesus did not die to make us nice. Kindness is not about being just nice and smiling at each other, it has a deeper more profound meaning. Which is just as well because I don't personally find nice a very nice word. And I certainly know that, at times, I can be far from being very nice. Ask my kids when I am stuck in traffic on the M25.
Like compassion, it is helpful to see kindness as a profound human feeling prompted by the pain of others. It draws the love out of us to act. The old English word for this is charity. This personally helps me to understand Jesus' mission and his character, as it did for Mother Teresa of Calcutta who said:
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."
As a pretty unremarkable human being who has never been awarded a bravery medal or been given an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, I accept that I am never going to be recognised as a great person who has done great things for Queen and country. But, hey, I can live with that.
I guess what I can't live with is that there is so much loneliness and suffering in our so-called civilised and self-sufficient society. Families are broken, individuals are broken. The world is broken!
This is why our church is taken to doing 'Acts of Random Kindness' in Jesus' name. We are looking to serve our community and be a best friend to it. With the help of Dave Workman's experience, here are some 20 top ideas for serving others this Summer.
To help people make the link with us we have produced connect cards, which allow people to see it is a free gift from the church - with no strings attached. It also means they can get in touch with us to find out why we do what we do. When we did our first big giveaway at Christmas last year we saw our service more than double in attendance.
1. Pay for
someone in line with you
“Hey, I’d just like to treat you to a free (coffee, lunch, movie, etc.) compliments of your local church. Let me do that for you, ok?”
2. Drive-thru
freebie
Just let the person at the pay window of a drive-thru restaurant that you’re
picking up the tab for the person in line behind you. Ask how much, hand over
some cash and the connect card and you’re on your way. You’ll probably get a
fun reaction out of the drive-thru person taking your money as well.
3. Big Giveaway Days
Take A stall out in your local market on a Saturday and give away things like water on hot days. You can give away mince pies at Christmas. Printing your own napkins with a message always goes down well.
4. Pay for a
stranger’s meal
You can do this while you are with others out for a meal. You can
also just pop into a restaurant and pay for a random table.
5. Do a
neighbour’s garden
It’s easiest to do this when your neighbour is already doing their lawn. You
can show up with a rake, lawn bag, or whatever you’ve got…and join the fun.
6. “Love
Attack” a single parent
This one is fantastic. You’ll love it. Find an unsuspecting single parent and
tell them that they have you for two hours. You’ll paint, fix, clean or do
whatever they need around the house. You might want to warn them that you’re
not a professional painter/fixer/cleaner person…but you can clean out
garages, drawers or whatever else they need done, with the best of
them. This is a great one to do through your church's compassion ministry. We do this through our Storehouse ministry.
7. £1 car wash
(give them the pound)
Throw together a £1 Car Wash sign, a bucket, sponge, some soap and water and
you’ve got all the makings for a car wash. When they go to give you the pound
– just stop them and say, “Oh I’m sorry, you must have misinterpreted our sign.
You don’t give us a pound, we give you the pound.”
8. Sports drink
giveaway
Take a cooler full of drinks to the local sports game and start
handing them out.
9. Free ice
cream! Give it away
In this heat it is easy.
10. Give nappies
to a new parent
Find a parent of a little one and you’ll have found a parent that’s buying a
silly amount of nappies. Take them some nappies and you’ll bless them in a huge
way.
11. Tip your
server 30% or more
…and that’s just the start. If you really want to go 40 or even 50% we won’t
tell.
12. Car Park Ticket giveaway
Car parks often have machines, so why not buy two tickets and give one of them to the next person who arrives at the machine.
13. Take your
child’s art to a nursing home
“But I don’t have a kid” “My kid is 27” “My kids’ art is pretty rough” If this
is you, maybe you ought to think about taking some flowers to the nursing home.
They’ll like that too.
14. Compliment 5
people
Hebrews 3:13 tells us to do this anyway. Ask God to show you just how much He
loves someone and then go start encouraging.
15. Find out 2
things about your staff at your local Nero's, Costas or Starbucks
They’re paid to be friendly. We’re called to be friendly. Get to know the
people who regularly serve you.
16. Thank your
local police
You can write a letter, put together a gift basket, or just stop by and tell
them. Don’t be afraid to take this to the next level. Get creative.
17. Volunteer 2
hours somewhere
The local school, shelter, nursing home, you name it. Bless someone with your
time and energy.
18. Write an
encouraging note
Actually write something out by hand…on real paper. Remember paper?
19. Thanks your local school teachers
Buy bags of jam doughnuts and deliver them in time for morning break to local school staff rooms, along with a letter of thanks. They''ll go down better than you think.
20. ?
There must be twentieth idea to round it up. Maybe you can think of one?
Have fun!
ASD
