The Simple Pastor

By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer

Archive of "kindness" Category

• Reasons to be thankful

  July 20, 2010 // No Comments »

  I’ve been thinking a little bit more about why being thankful is so important and that without it we will inevitably suffer and struggle, we will remain immature.

  Saying ‘thank you’ to another person is a habit that needs teaching, we’ve been doing that with our two year old son, so that when he receives something he says ‘thank you’. It’s all a bit cutesy but the reasons go much deeper than civility and good manners. There are lessons and disciplines we need to bring into our relationship with God. Thankfulness to God essentially puts things in the right order of importance. Here are just three ways ‘thankfulness’ is a good spiritual discipline to have.

  1. Giving thanks reminds me I need others. Without thanks, without gratitude I can fool myself into thinking that I don’t need anyone else, and it is fooling myself. No one arrives in the world all on their own and no one survives on their own either. It’s not true for childhood and it’s not true for adulthood either.
  2. Giving thanks reminds me that life is a gift. Without thanks I tend to develop the conviction that life and the universe owes me. I deserve your kindness, I’m worthy of your gifts. Life should be easy for me, my path to success should be straightforward. After all this is me we’re talking about. This is, of course, bunkum. I’m not owed anything and an easy life is not a human right. The universe does not revolve around me and saying ‘thanks’ is a gentle, daily, regular reminder that this is a good thing.
  3. Giving thanks reminds me to be content. If I don’t give thanks then I won’t appreciate what I have and if I don’t appreciate what I have then I won’t be satisfied, and dissatisfaction is the enemy of contentment. Gratefulness gives me the chance to appreciate the kindness of another, the goodness of the gift, to stop and realise that life is better than I often give it credit.

  Tags: thankfulness
  Categories:
  contentment, kindness

• The reward of kindness

  December 30, 2009 // No Comments »

  On Christmas Day, with some kind friends from around the churches in town, we hosted a Christmas dinner for people who would for a variety of reasons be on their own. In the end there were about 100 of us from aged 1 to 96! Today I received this kind letter. It’s ample reward for a day I thoroughly enjoyed, celebrating the birth of Christ (in what is for me a more appropriate manner). Here’s the main body of the letter:
  

  “I felt I wanted to write and say many thanks to you and Soul Purpose and to other kind friends who helped to arrange such a Happy Christmas Day.I’ve had ninety-six Christmas’ and the one Soul Purpose invited me to was one of the best I wasn’t looking forward this year to Christmas without my dear husband but you helped to take some of the sadness away. I thank you all for giving me a happy joyful time to share with others and for the hard work and hours of preparation to give so many lonely folk such a great time. A Happy New Year to you all. God Bless”

  I nearly cried.

  Categories:
  christmas, compassion, kindness

• Adbusting: Absolut Vodka

  June 9, 2009 // No Comments »

  A world without money is an attractive idea, one replaced by kindness is even better. In fact the kindness idea is at the heart of Christian ethics in how we treat and do business with one another. Only this rendering of it hasn’t been imagined by a church but by a vodka company. What’s going on? Not only that but it’s the Vodka company that are putting that into action (well for a week anyway)

  It’s a Vodka company that says, “In An ABSOLUT World, purses, wallets and jingling pocketfuls of change would be things of the past as Acts of Kindness became the new currency.Your riches would genuinely reflect what you added to the world. In An ABSOLUT World, who would the millionaires be? Would you be one?”

  They’ve even co-opted it into a kindness movement although because it’s a drinks company only those over 18 can join.

  On the one hand any promoting of kindness is good, any challenging of greed is good but it’s a shame that in our world it needs to be done by companies, that moral virtues are now also commercial campaigns. That we need a drinks company rather than the church to call the world to kindness through creative thinking and use of media.

  Ironically though for if a world was this good we probably wouldn’t be drinking vodka.
  
  

  Categories:
  advertising, kindness, video

• Highly Religious are more helpful

  November 19, 2008 // No Comments »

  “Gallup Polls conducted in more than 140 countries worldwide between 2006 and 2008 show that those whose responses identify them as highly religious are more likely than less religious respondents to report that they have engaged in each of three “helping behaviours” in the past month. In all four major global regions, for example, highly religious people are more likely than those who report being less religious to report having donated money to a charity in that time.”

  Here for the whole report

  Categories:
  kindness

• Johnny the Bagger

  January 30, 2008 // 1 Comment »

  During my talk last Sunday on following the call to love God and love people, I talked about how it takes us out to people, it makes us GO, it propels us forward and out of our comfort zones. At the end I read a story from John Ortberg’s latest book ‘When the Game is Over it all goes back in the box’ about Johnny the Bagger. Kindness goes a long way…anyway it seems words have been turned into pictures

  Categories:
  kindness, love