February News From the Clergy

18 Jan 2023 • From the Clergy

In 2011 the UK Christian charity, Stewardship, launched its “Forty Acts of Kindness” challenge. On each day of Lent, participants were encouraged to perform an act of kindness, sometimes for family or friends, sometimes for complete strangers, or for the community as a whole. Challenges ranged from litter picking to paying the grocery bill of the person in front of you at the supermarket.

More ongoing challenges included becoming a blood donor or volunteering for a charity. In my view, anything that encourages kindness and generosity is good, but were these acts of kindness really random? Participants didn’t really have to think about them – the ideas were provided each day; but neither were they spontaneous – they were pre-meditated, if not by the individual then by somebody working at the charity office. The choice of recipient may have been random; the action itself was less so.

Nonetheless, random acts of kindness are being performed on a daily basis, as Mum and I recently experienced for ourselves. On the Wednesday before Christmas I took Mum to Malvern Theatre to see “A Christmas Carol.” We were advised by the theatre that Grange Road was closed and we would need to access the theatre via the park, having used the car park behind the park. For those of you not familiar with Priory Park, the walk is pleasant enough but involves a long slope up to the theatre. Mum was adamant that we didn’t need to follow the diversion signs to find somewhere closer to the theatre; she could and would walk through the park. It very soon became clear that the slope, gentle enough for the able -bodied was a challenge on the scale of Mount Everest for Mum! After having to stop several times to recover her breath, she was almost ready to admit defeat when a kindly woman came along and after one look at Mum raced off to the theatre, returning in a few moments, with a wheelchair. She pushed Mum the rest of the way and saw us safely installed in the foyer.

The walk had taken us a long time and we were both cold. Whereas I quickly warmed up again, Mum didn’t and having found our seats, I took my coat off, pushed Mum’s hands up its sleeves and sat rubbing her hands to warm them. The man in the next seat saw this and, assuring Mum that his hands were always warm, took her hands in his and for the next ten minutes Mum sat contentedly holding hands with a complete stranger until she felt warm again.

Two random acts of kindness which meant such a lot to two people in a difficult situation. Mum and I don’t know the names of our helpers; we will probably never see them again – or recognise them if we do – but their simple acts of compassion and kindness will stay with us.

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus seized many opportunities to perform random acts of kindness; unplanned encounters which led to healing miracles and the proclamation of God’s love through words and deeds. Of all the parables Jesus told, my favourite is that of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25, 31 – 46). The response of the righteous to Jesus’s comment about them feeding, sheltering, clothing and visiting him, shows that their deeds of kindness were indeed random. They did not record them in any “tally.” They did not congratulate themselves on their own goodness or piety. They simply recognized a need, met it where and when they could and moved on. They served God unconsciously through their compassion towards others.

This is a wonderful model for us to use in our own lives and behaviour. Acts of kindness should not be done in a blaze of publicity, courting attention and praise. Rather they should be done quietly, unobtrusively. They should be performed for those we don’t know and for those we know have no means of returning the favour. Returning to the experience of me and Mum, that lady probably had no thought that she was pushing Christ in a wheelchair. I doubt that the man in the next seat considered for a moment that he was holding Christ’s cold hand between his own warm ones. Yet Christ honours all such actions as being done for him.

February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day with 14th – 20th being designated Random Acts of Kindness Week. You can go online and find a wealth of suggestions for things to do during that week. Like the Forty Acts of Kindness Challenge, this is a well-intentioned initiative and one we could all embrace. But why wait for a particular day or week? Our Lord commanded us to love one another as he loves us. That should manifest itself by always showing love and kindness, every day, every week, for the whole of our lives.

Sarah Cottrill