“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things that we have done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:4-5).
It was the kindest deed ever done to us by a human being, this radically low rent price offered to us by our landlord, Bryan. In a season of living month to month, our landlord was extravagantly generous to us (I believe because the Lord moved his heart and hands to do so), offering us a preposterously cheap price on his property.
And it wasn’t just “nice” of him to do this. Nice would’ve been dropping the price by a couple hundred dollars, or offering to mow our lawn for us (which he also did). But instead, he slashed the price and in doing so incurred a cost. He could’ve rented that house out for double what we paid him.
It was selfless and sacrificial - a truly miraculous act of kindness.
There’s a difference between “nice” and “kind.” Nice is easy, cheap and superficial. It’s “Minnesota nice” - friendly at surface level (there are a lot of great Minnesotans out there, by the way 😉). On the other hand, kindness is costly - sacrificial in the deepest of ways, cutting straight to the heart. It will cost us time, energy, resources, comfort, relationships, and our pride. And as limited human beings, we feel this cost deeply.
Jesus paid it all - the highest price, the full cost of kindness. The cross was the costliest act of kindness ever performed - nothing could compare. Our King of kings is the King of kindness - giving up His only Son for the sake of us all. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things that we have done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:4-5).
We cannot even begin to understand the kind heart of the Father towards us. Kindness comes naturally to him - Dane Ortlund puts it this way in his book Gentle and Lowly: “…picture a damned-up river, pent up, engorged, ready to burst forth - that is the kindness in the heart of Christ” (207). He delights in showing His children His immeasurable kindness. He directs his kindnesses toward each one of us personally, like arrows aimed at our hearts, handpicking his kindnesses towards us. And furthermore, he wants to show us this kindness forever - into eternity! In Ephesians 2:6-7 we read, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
In all his kindness towards us, Jesus carries our burdens and desires to walk with us through the challenges we face. Dane Ortlund explains: “The Greek word for kindness means a desire to do what is in your power to prevent discomfort in another. It’s the same word used in Matthew 11:30 where Jesus says ‘my yoke is easy.’ His yoke is kind” (210). When we come to Jesus and stop resisting his kindness, he sustains us - carrying us and our load and lavishing love on us.
But what keeps us from receiving the fullness of God’s kindness, or even missing it altogether? I believe that in order to receive God’s kindness, we must have a soft and tender heart. We live in this age of calloused hearts - bitterness, brokenness, hurt and pain have hardened us. We must seek to keep our hearts soft in the midst of it all. How do we do this - how do we keep our hearts soft so that we can experience God’s kindness for ourselves?
1. We come to Him, as He invites us to do in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…” He wants to speak to us and show us His kindness. We must give him our time and our attention in order for Him to do so.
2. We repent, for “God’s kindness is intended to lead us to repentance” (Romans 2:4). His kindness is not a license to sin but rather an invitation to realign ourselves with the Spirit and receive His forgiveness. We come to Jesus with repentant hearts so that He can refresh us and bless us and keep our hearts tender.
3. We count God’s kindnesses towards us - not downplaying them but rejoicing in gratitude over each big and small kindness we receive, starting with the cross of Christ. We give God the credit, counting God’s kindnesses out loud in front of our children. This quote rings in my ears frequently: “Two women looked out of prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars.” We find the stars and follow them with our eyes and count the kindnesses of God toward us over and over again.
4. We are kind to ourselves, having compassion on ourselves and thinking true thoughts about ourselves - thoughts aligned with the Word of God. We don’t live as though we are unlimited beings - we live within our limits and give ourselves grace on the hard days.
When our hearts are soft they are like a sponge, able to soak in the abundant ocean of the kindness of Jesus and then squeeze it out onto others. We will be filled to overflowing again and again as we allow His kindness to flow onto us and then through us to our families and into this world.
The world would be a divinely different place if we all received for ourselves the kindness of Jesus that He is ever extending to us. We just need to reach out our hands, reject the lies of the enemy and the world (which tell us that God is not kind) and receive His kindness for ourselves.
God’s kindness is immeasurable and it is eternal and it is for you. “In the coming age we will descend ever deeper into God’s grace in kindness, into his very heart, and the more we understand of it, the more we will see it to be beyond understanding. It is immeasurable” (Ortlund, 212). May you experience the beauty of His kindness towards you in the week ahead.
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