A bad memory

The fruit of the Spirit is…kindness… Galatians 5:22

I’m sitting on a bench by the river in San Antonio, Texas. I’m only here for a week; the friends I’m staying with are both at work, so I’m just having a stroll and soaking up the warmth and the atmosphere.

A man comes and sits next to me. He turns out to be what once might have been called a “rough diamond” – well, rough anyway; not sure about the other bit. We get chatting.

Someone approaches our bench from behind. Looking round I see a young woman who is obviously in great need. I know nothing about drugs and their symptoms, but something about her eyes and her general demeanour alerts me immediately.

“Excuse me,” she says, “I’m not going to ask you for money…”

Whereupon… “Beat it, or I’ll call the cops…” So bursts out my new friend with frightening, cruel viciousness.

“Beating it” is exactly what she does. I’ve never seen a whipped dog – not, at least, until this moment. She slinks off, her head sunk, her shoulders bent.

My friend resumes our friendly conversation…

This happened some fifteen years ago. It took perhaps ten seconds all told, but I’ve never forgotten it. And it never fails to fill me with shame - because I did nothing.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head in a split second… It all happened so quickly!… I was in a state of shock, it was so utterly unexpected... This isn’t my country, I’m a visitor here, it’s not for me to interfere… Perhaps this is the way things are done here… What could I do anyway? – I’m in no position to help her… Perhaps she is a well-known local character who has exhausted many attempts to help her…

But it didn’t take me long to realise that all that is just feeble excuses.

Oh, why didn’t I jump up, ask my friend to excuse me, run after her and at least show some kind of concern, let her know how sorry I was about what had happened? Why not show just a touch of kindness? At least that would be better than nothing. “Mere gestures” aren’t always “mere” are they? They can make a real difference.

Who knows? Such a little show of kindness might have changed that woman’s life for ever, given her a new hope, saved her even from killing herself, for all I know. Of course there’s no point in tormenting myself with what might have happened, but it’s hard not to ask the question.

And another question comes crowding in: that was an opportunity missed that I know about; but how many others have there been that I didn’t even notice? Why? Because I was too much wrapped up in my own affairs, too insensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, just too plain uncaring.

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). He “saw” the man lying beaten up by the roadside and “took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds…” How easily, instead of “seeing”, he could have turned a blind eye, like the priest and the Levite.

Paul encourages the believers in Galatia (Galatians 6:10): “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the household of believers”. (Note that “especially”; not “exclusively”: note that “all people”.)

Likewise in Ephesians 6:10 he urges his readers to “make the most of every opportunity” (to “redeem the time”, as the King James Version put it). We usually take this to mean opportunities for evangelism, and rightly so. But why not acts of kindness, mercy and generosity as well?

Many of us are frustrated by the pandemic situation we are having to put up with at the moment. “I’m just not able to do the things I normally do!” we say. We might even add, “I sometimes find it hard to fill the day.” But could it be that God is putting opportunities for acts of kindness and other forms of service in our way, if only we have the eyes to see them and the wills to take them up?

A message sent to someone… a greeting exchanged with a stranger… a word with the person at the supermarket check-out… an offer of practical help for someone unable to get out…

Kindness (isn’t it a beautiful word!) can take a million forms.

Open my eyes, Lord, to see the opportunities to show kindness that you put in my way. And quicken my will to take them up and act upon them. Amen.