As I have been going through the process of attempting to purchase a home, I have seen just how bad the economy is. It is now no longer possible to get approved for a loan without being a circus animal and jumping through dozens of hoops. As the process has gone, I have gotten more and more frustrated and was struggling more and more. That peeked this morning as I have to miss more work to go and meet with my loan officer. As I sat in the classroom of the High School I work at, I was struggling to motivate to do anything.

As the door opened and one of the members of Student Council walked in, I didn’t really have any desire to even acknowledge him and just wanted to continue with my lesson. He then asked “Would you like a donut, coffee and a t-shirt.” My immediate response was yes. Student Council was starting something for the teachers called Operation Kindness. They recognized that with budget cuts and the year getting to the final stretch, many teachers and staff members are beginning to burn out. They are simply going around with coffee, donuts, and staff t-shirts.

As I sat eating my delicious Krispy Kreme donut and drinking my starbucks coffee, I couldn’t help but feel better. The circumstances of my frustration hadn’t changed, but “Operation Kindness” had brightened my day.

As I continued to dwell on how a simple pastry and coffee could change my day, I began to think of how displays of kindness could really change a life. How many times do we have the opportunity to change some body’s day by holding the door open? Carrying their groceries? Just giving a smile? We never know what kind of day someone is having, or what kind of profound effect we could have on their lives.

As Christians, our goal is to have a profound effect on people’s lives. It is to show them the love of Jesus through our words and our actions. We are commanded to show that love in 1 Peter 1:22 when it says “You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.” I hope and pray that you seek and find opportunities to show love to one another in the coming days. People are struggling and are looking for good.

Trying to work my own Operation Kindness…

I just returned home from a long day at work. This morning seemed like days ago. I work at a shelter for at-risk teenage boys. Drug addicts. Gangsters. Abused. homeless. At the school there is an extensive farm for young men to learn about responsibility and hard work. It’s amusing. It’s exhausting. This morning I took 6 students to complete the daily chores at the farm.

In some ways going to the farm refreshes me. Like this morning, I was watching the students feed the goats. I noticed one goat in particular. The large pen holding the goats is divided by a fence, splitting the pen in half. In the center of the dividing fence was an open gate, allowing the goats to freely enter the other side where the students were placing leaves of hay or alfalfa (I don’t remember what exactly goats eat and I’m praying the students knew when they fed them). In one section of the fence was a hole about the size of a “half-goat.” This particular goat was attempting to squeeze and finagle his way through, not realizing that just a few feet away was a wide open gate. Of course, in my over-analytical state of mind, I could see the potential sermon fodder taking place right before my eyes!

It’s a bitter-sweet opportunity working where I work. I see teenagers all day long. They’re just like any other teens I’ve met in my years of youth ministry. They make me laugh. They make me proud. They frustrate me. One thing in common with these young men? manipulation. They are all masters of manipulation. They now how to finagle through situations to escape accountability. That’s what they know. If only they knew.

“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber,” (John 10:1). Jesus cannot be manipulated. He is judge of all souls. At the heart of sin is manipulation. I think that’s why God hates sin so much because it is an attempt to manipulate Him. Lust manipulates love. Greed manipulates blessings. Murder manipulates life. Sin attempts to manipulate God into getting what we want of him rather than us giving what he wants of us. Church-goers are not much different. We’ve learned over the years how to manipulate as well. We’ve twisted worship into one hour on Sunday mornings. We try to convince God and ourselves that we somehow are worthy of His love by the good things we’ve done. How easily we forget God’s holiness and righteousness alone is the basis for our good works. May we never forget our complete dependancy on Jesus Christ’s righteousness, given to us through His sacrifice on the cross, for the salvation of our souls. And may we never get stuck in the fence of manipulation. The gate is wide open. Jesus has clearly opened it and allowed us to freely enter and feast on His goodness. “I am the Gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” Enough said.

As I was driving home I heard a song on one of the local country stations that has been out for a little while now called You Find Out Who Your Friends Are by Tim McGraw and a couple of other guys. The jist of the song is the idea that you truly do find out who your friends are when the crap hits the fan. Who stands by your side, who leaves you hanging, who is there for you, who takes off or doesn’t return your phone calls. All that said, it made me think what does it mean to truly be a friend?

We know so many people anymore these days. We know people at work, we know people at home, we know people at church, people from our kids’ schools or sports activities, we know people from the restaurants, coffee shops or other marketplaces that we frequent. How many of them do you consider to be friends?

In scripture we see the idea of friendship in multiple places. For example, no greater love have men than this, that he lay his life down for a friend. I think that this should be our true example of friendship. Mostly people have used this in the context of Christ giving up His life for us, or us in turn dying for someone that we would consider a friend. I want us to think of this scripture in a much broader text. Laying your life down can be any sacrifice that you willingly give up for those around you. If God has asked us to love others as we love ourselves, calling this the second greatest commandment, what are we doing to love those around us? Ask yourself a few of these questions:

What type of friend are you?

What have you laid down for your friends lately?

Are you always taking or do you give as well?

What are your friends going through right now that you could help with?

We all know people that just take, take, take and never give back to the people around them. We may love them deeply but we all know that these are the worst friends to have in your life. Are you one of those people? Let us strive to always be friends that lay down our lives for those around us, that is Christ-like friendship.