An Act of Kindness

On Mother's Day, the message for Gateway was entitled, "Try a Little Kindness." Our passage was from Colossians 3:12:

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12 (NLT)

We looked at the story of the Good Samaritan as a Biblical example of kindness. Jesus used this parable as an example of love immediately after he had communicated the two great commandments -- Love God, and Love Others. Kindness is love in action.

The challenge from the message was this: Who needs my kindness this week? Put kindness into action.

This past week we received a letter from the pastor of First Baptist Church, Rutherfordton, NC. He and a number of others from his church had experienced this love in action from a member of our Gateway family.

Dear Pastor and Church,

I want to commend a member of your congregation for showing the Good Samaritan Spirit in a modern day situation! Carl Bennett did our 25 JOY Group Members a tremendous service a few weeks ago as he demonstrated wonderful Christian love.

Our church bus was stalled north of Columbia (about 20 miles) on April 30, and Carl stopped to offer help. He carried 2 of our men back to Lexington (SC) to pick up 2 rental vans and then guided them back to our I-26 position near Chapin. He spent almost 2 hours of his time helping us in a real jam! Our bus had sheared 2 bolts on the torque converter which drives the flywheel and we had lost the transmission, and it had to be towed to Gaffney.

Please know that Carl's gracious spirit and time and concern was a powerful sermon for our church group! Please use the enclosed in his honor.

Gratefully,
Dean Baughn

The pastor had enclosed a gift offering expressing his gratitude.

Carl would not want this to be public because it would draw attention to him. He was simply putting Christ on display by putting his love into action. His act of kindness happened because of who he is and who he serves.

The same words Jesus used to close this parable apply to us:

Now go and do the same.

Written and posted by Russ Holt on behalf of Don Brock (on mission trip to Uganda).