Have you ever been shown lovingkindness when you least deserved it?
Maybe you were being mean as a snake, for whatever reason…
…and then someone showed you an extremely undeserved level of kindness, someone disregarded the bad attitude, the rotten behavior, the lashing out… and touched you with an underserved gentleness and lovingkindness.
Boy have I been on the receiving end of that….
That feeling of being caught off guard by being loved in a moment when I am at my very worst, when I am about as mean and hateful as I can possibly be.
It kind of snaps you out of it, at least for a bit. You can feel that love, that lovingkindness, and it catches you off guard. It breaks down the walls, it shifts the atmosphere, it causes you to internally say, “hey – wait a minute…what’s being shown to me is radically different than what I’m used to…”
Moments like these can change a life.
Moments like these can turn things around.
What if the “viciousness” is really someone who has been traumatized, hurt and wounded? That lovingkindness breaks right through the viciousness and breaks through the walls of a wounded heart.
That lovingkindness creates a safe place for a person who is so used to biting everyone’s head off… How quickly we see that outside shell melt away…. and we can see a hurting person who just needs to be shown a moment or two of lovingkindness.
It never ceases to amaze me, how that works.
I watched Jason show a person lovingkindness yesterday, and I watched this person literally melt open, I saw this person literally open up their heart for a moment, I saw this person go from vicious and harsh on the outside to being able to see into a precious wounded soul who just needed to be heard, who just needed to experience a moment of true lovingkindness. It was beautiful and heartbreaking to see.
It reminded me of myself at my most unlovable state, and how the Lord was so patient and compassionate with me, because of His goodness, and because of the abundance of His lovingkindness.
And guess what? We are all on the receiving end of the Lord’s lovingkindness.
“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” – Psalm 36:7
“They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.” – Nehemiah 9:17
“I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.” – Isaiah 63:7
“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” – Titus 3:4-6
“For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!” – Psalm 117:2
Thank You, Lord, for Your heart of compassion and Your tender lovingkindness. What an example to us –how even the tiniest little bit that we can show, can be a moment that You can reach a person through us, that can so powerfully change a life. Help us, Lord. Help us to realize this. Help us to remember what You’ve done for us.
-Heather ?