In This Issue

Yes—It Can Be Hard

Collecting Capsules of Kindness

Showing Kindness through Neighborhood Involvement

Being Brave Enough to Approach a Hurting Stranger

Reaching Out to Others Makes Me Happier

A Lesson in Showing Kindness to a Co-Worker

Light Notes

Ten Peaces of Advice (puns intended)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Yes — It Can Be Hard

but the rewards are profound!

“Hard Places” is a figure of speech I often use both in my writing and in my talks. What do I mean by that? “Hard Places” are situations, people, or encounters we would prefer to avoid for some reason. I believe that going into them is a necessary part of our lives as Jesus’ people.

A lot of loving-kindness is relatively easy. Greeting strangers, speaking sentences of appreciation, offering warm smiles—each of these only requires a little remembering to trigger the action. Brightening the world by those actions can become comfortable, lovely habits, with only a little effort. True, they are not common enough, but they are easy to do.

“Going Into Hard Places” calls for a new level of energy and commitment. This is a much more difficult level of loving-kindness. Both the easy and the hard are essential, but the hard requires extra coaching and a lot more convincing. After that, there has to be a strong, prayerful decision, and a commitment.

The rewards for going into hard places are more likely to be profound and soul satisfying, even though they are much more difficult to do. The rewards for “the easy” are usually inner joy and personal pleasure. Going into hard places is more complex, often uncomfortable, and sometimes even upsetting. But the rewards, when they come, can be substantial. The final reward for going into hard places is the Lord’s words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The reason for going into hard places is not for the rewards, of course. We go to help, to love, to heal, to be supportive, to communicate that their circumstances matter to us — and to God. It is showing Jesus’ love and compassion. Certainly God is there in all the difficult situations, but Christians must act as if God isn’t there- until they themselves show up. And we show up because it is right, it is needed, and it is good.

(continued)

Dr. James R. Kok has written a definitive resource detailing the key essentials in becoming a more caring person in his latest book, “The Miracle of Kindness” (available on Amazon.com, in either paperback or Kindle edition.) A handful of basic tools —wrapped in courage—are the secret to changing the world through intentional acts of kindness.

As the Koach Of Kare, Dr. Kok has been a pastor at the
Crystal Cathedral for the past 25 years and heads the Care Ministry department of the church. He is the author of six books and numerous articles, and he is the founder of the
Conference on Care and Kindness, held annually at the Crystal Cathedral.

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