well woman (John chapter 4)

Jesus seemed willing to engage anyone in conversation, on any topic, at any time. He was extraordinarily skilled at speaking the hardest of truths with kindness and acceptance.

neighborliness

My friend Doug knows what it means to be a good neighbor. He came over at 9:00 a couple nights ago to help me install a new dishwasher. We got a late start because we’d each had very long workdays.

The installation didn’t follow the script. (Do they ever, I wonder?). It was impossible to discern which breaker the electrical was wired to so we turned them all off. Of course, that meant doing much of the job by flashlight.

The not-so-helpful instructions estimated the job should take between one and three hours. Doug left our house at 1:00 in the morning. He was still smiling. Perhaps even more striking was the utter absence of profanity! That’s a good neighbor. In fact, for those four hours at least, I’d say Doug’s neighborliness bordered on the saintly.

Grace arrives in many forms. I’ve found, though, that it usually involves a palpably personal and relational element. Grace usually entails somebody choosing to be available as its conduit.



Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Thanksgiving Blessing

Even as we express our gratitude for God’s good gifts,
We receive the gift of gratitude itself;
Pressed down and overflowing.

Let us seek the way of pure kindness…
In the name of the Father.

Let us shut the door on anxiety…
In the name of Jesus.

Let us remember beauty…
In the name of the Holy Spirit.

Even as we express our gratitude for God’s good gifts,
We receive the gift of gratitude itself;
Pressed down and overflowing…
Pressed down and overflowing.

Amen

lead with kindness

I keep trying to set down my impulses to co-opt God’s voice into my power plays. I would much prefer to lead with kindness. (I mean "lead" in the sense of putting that foot forward...) Through kindness, we help humanize one another. When we leverage behavior, affection, support, and so on… out of one another with tools like triangling, we have to ignore or deny human dignity. That’s not good.

Generosity

I think generosity is the heart of emotional flexibility. Physical flexibility improves the fluidity of my movement, allows me to flow more symbiotically with life’s currents, and helps fend off injuries related to brittleness. Generosity brings analogous qualities to my feelings, reactions, and moods.

A readiness to share what I have, whether material, relational, or spiritual, keeps my soul pliable and supple. It seems to increase my capacity to “roll with the punches”, and ease my tendency to jump to conclusions.

Kindness is among generosity’s most beautiful faces; softness to another soul. Sometimes it’s harder to share than cash! But its power to radiate blessing is remarkable – even small acts of kindness can emit wellbeing in all directions.

Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Feral

“...no one can tame the human tongue.” James 3:8

I have sometimes thought biting my tongue, so to speak, did no real good because whatever I’d been about to say was already in my mind anyway. But I have come to believe that saying something out loud is like pushing a stone downhill: chances are, it will start rolling once gravity gets a hold of it.

The sense I have is that words spoken create momentum toward another thought, then another remark, which propels toward another thought,etc. Given conducive circumstances and willing conversational partners, the momentum can quickly become strong enough to pull me into attitudes I didn’t mean to visit.

It’s better to train the tongue to set good things in motion: encouragement, affirmation, kindness, provocation toward love and good deeds...

But maybe we need to accept the fact that it is never completely domesticated; it remains at least partly feral.