Is Kindness Contagious?

Recently there was a video going around on Facebook which showed people doing small acts of kindness or thoughtfulness and the comments were along the lines of “If only there was more of this, the world would be a better place to live in!” I am sure we all concur with that thinking. For the Christian, kindness should be natural as it is one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. Kindness is an attitude which results in kind action. Gordon Fee said, “If longsuffering means not to chew someone’s head off, kindness means to find ways of binding up their wounds.”  I am sure you know of people who have carried out kind and selfless acts. I would like to share just one.  Four weeks ago today we have some very dear friends who left for Zambia to work among orphans there. Maybe you think there is nothing unusual about that but you need to know what preceded it. The husband walked away from being a corporate CFO at the age when his earning capacity was high and would only increase from there. They sold their lovely home, bought a much smaller townhouse as they still have three girls of university age who need somewhere to live.  They have gone to Zambia indefinitely on a meager subsistence allowance which is less than many people retire on. They now live with daily power outages and are regularly without water. The wife has already been quite sick. But they are there in their words, “to make a difference in the lives of the orphans with whom they work.” They are not trained missionaries, just Christians wanting to serve. They want to “bind up those wounds” of the less fortunate. They could have stayed at home and given money but they have given of themselves. We admire their dedication and sacrifice. I personally call that kindness in the extreme. We wish them God’s blessing in all that they do. I cannot ask you to pray for my friends regularly but I ask you to pray for them today and if you want to follow them on their blog the link is www.zambiamissionkollenhovens.blogspot.com.