Remember the story in Mark about a man with a withered hand coming to be healed on the Sabbath? The rules of the day strictly forbid doing much of anything on the Sabbath. "Is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath to save a life or to destroy it? But they were silent. And he looked at them with anger, sad because of the hardness of their hearts; and he said to the man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out; and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees immediately went out with the Herodians, and they took counsel concerning how to do away with him."
We are presented with the dilemma of postponing doing good because of a rule or doing good and not losing a day in one's life. Bishop Spong remarks, "Since life is finite, an act of kindness postponed means a day lost in that person's life."
Where do we let excuses, convenience, history, ideology or anything stand in the way of doing kindness? Jesus modeled and lived doing kindnesses as part of the spiritual path. What if we followed that example? What if we all went out and lived today as walking, talking kindness?
A thought to consider, it seems to me.
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