“What does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8, NRSVue)
The Hebrew word for kindness was hesed. It appears over 250 times in the Hebrew bible (the Torah, or the first 5 books of our common bible), making it one of the most commonly used words alongside ones like “love” and “God.” The use of the word hesed includes a feeling of concern for another person, so it’s also sometimes also translated as compassion or, when used in a context for caring for someone who in the eyes of most people does not deserve your kindness, it is translated as mercy. There are times where hesed is said with deep commitment to staying in relationship, in communion with another person, even across differences – something today we might call love.
In the New Revised Standard Version (Updated Edition) of the Bible, 174 of the 250 times hesed is used are translated as steadfast love. What God demonstrates to us and for us – compassion, kindness, mercy, love – is what we’re meant to do for others. It is what the LORD requires of us. Friends are meant to show hesed to each other. Spouses and partners are meant to show hesed to one another. We are meant to show hesed to each other – no matter our differences.
Researchers at U.C. Berkley found that people who were kind tended to have higher self-esteem, less depression and anxiety, a greater sense of purpose and better physical health. Overall, scientist have learned that people who are kind or regularly engage in small, everyday, informal acts of kindness tended to have a higher state of well-being.
Over the last decade, we have faced many challenges that have led us to become more divided, more separated, more “us-versus-them” than ever before. Over that time, levels of stress, anxiety, depression, apathy, suicidal ideation and fear have steadily risen. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
The step is to simply show kindness to ourselves. To show ourselves compassion, to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes and challenges, to give ourselves space to breathe and decompress, to affirm ourselves and to recognize that we are all just doing our best. Showing kindness, hesed, to ourselves gives us an opportunity to heal.
And when we show ourselves kindness, we are far more likely to show kindness to the people around us. To demonstrate compassion, empathy, patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, love. To begin the healing process, to start to close the gap, the divide between us. At times, differences can be our strength: there should be debates about our challenges, our problems because often times, the best answer, the right solution exists not with either one of us but in the space between us. But for that to be true, for that to become a reality, it requires compromise, it requires open-mindedness, it requires us to view each other with the best intensions.
Kindness won’t solve everything, at least not overnight. But it gives us a place to start. To start healing, to start viewing each other as equal partners in this work. Over the next few weeks, we will be digging into these themes, of Kindness & Respect & Love & Humility & Compassion. We hope that you, and your family, will choose to join us on this journey.
Much love,
Matt Britt
Director of Youth Ministries
