What does a kind life look like?

What does a kind life look like?

Friday, April 29, 2016
Mark Cirino 

What does a life of kindness look like? Being kind to one another is a really good thing. When someone does an act of kindness towards me, it makes me feel really good. My heart is warmed, When I do an act of kindness towards someone, it makes me feel really good. I am uplifted. As I pondered these life-giving acts of kindness, I wondered what does a life of kindness look like?

I thought of my mom who recently turned 82. She is quite the character. Despite her nuances. Despite her idiosyncrasies. Despite her preferences which is a nice way of saying her stubbornness. Despite all of these, I love her dearly. One of the many reasons why I love my mom dearly is because of her kindness. I admire her kindness. I use her kindness as a role model for my life. Now, it’s not that she is the one who is always making a meal for the neighbors, or running errands for other people. It’s not that she doesn’t do these kind acts. She does do them. These are kind and good things to do. But it’s much deeper. It’s who she is. It’s how she has lived her life – with kindness.

My mom grew up in Japan during World War 2. This was when she was around 10 years old. She remembers evenings when she, her 4 sisters, her mother and father would be eating dinner and the air raid sirens would go off. They would have to jump up from dinner and start running to the bomb shelters which were caves dug into the mountain side. As they were running they would hear the engines of the US bombers. They would see and hear the artillery being shot at the bombers by the Japanese military positioned at the tops of the mountains. Quiet a horrific experience for a 10 year old. As you can imagine, she has many other stories.  Including that her father was killed when an US submarine that had snuck into the Sea of Japan and torpedoed the ship that her father, who was a civilian at the time, was on.

Here’s the thing though, my mom loves the Unites States of America. She is very honored to be an US citizen. She admires and speaks highly of our US Government and what this countries stands for. The Unites States of America is her home. We can’t get her to go back to even visit Japan. Why should she. As far as she’s concerned, Casapula’s makes the best Italian hoagies in the world, and they are ten minutes from her house. Why leave?

How can this be when the country you love was once set out to kill you, your family, and your nation? My mom could have become hateful, sour, untrusting, and cynical. But instead forgiveness has given kindness a place deep in her heart which then has made her life a walk of love.

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Ephesians 4:32

BTW, about 10 years ago, my mom showed me a little silver cross that she has carried in her purse since she was in her early 20’s. She and my dad were in a small group. Someone in the small group gave that cross to her. That was a kind thing to do. She said that she always prays to Jesus for her children. So that’s over 50 years of praying for her children. That’s a kind thing to do. That also brought to life for me the power of prayer.

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