Please do not mistake my kindness for weakness

Colossians 3: ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

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With their arms folded I knew I had no support from the other departments. Somehow my new found revelation of being kind and compassionate was mistaken for weakness. It seemed as though the other departments wanted me to be stark and curt rather than agreeable and cooperative. Maybe I should have gone back to being pushy!

• Being sneaky doesn’t make me a better businessman.
• Being cold and focused on the bottom line doesn’t make me a better leader.
• Being maleficent doesn’t make me closer to GOD but I may get my way and I have to deal with HIS consequences.

Human success was a driving force that seemed to take on a mind of its own. I mean at first I wanted to just do an excellent job, then I wanted to manage, then I wanted to get rid of dead weight, then I wanted to crush those who were in the way of my goals.

Before long I was in a place where people were nothing more than a statistic and those who couldn’t cut it should have been fired anyway. BUT GOD “cut me” from that world and I had to face what I had put others through. Talk about a revelation! “Who will help me?” I wondered in anguish.

• GOD taught me compassion by making me “empathize” with people I once had contempt for.
• GOD taught me kindness by having people treat me poorly the way I treated others.
• GOD taught me humility by stripping away my human titles I once endeared.
• GOD taught me gentleness by delivering people to me who were grieving yet contemptuous.
• GOD taught me patience by placing me in situations where I had to depend on others rather than having them respond to my title.

GOD says “forgive” and HE truly means it. HE wants me to forgive my enemies simply because HE forgave me. I still have the cold, tough dexterity BUT GOD wants me to purposefully show unity, peace and love as an act of strength, not weakness.

• Do you have someone who is against you?
• Do you feel they do not deserve compassion?
• Are you strong enough to show them kindness and gentleness?
• Won’t you forgive “that” person today?