Do you want to have some fun today? Then plan a “Random act of Kindness.” You know – the act of kindness you do for someone, especially someone who is suffering, but you don’t let them know who you are. For example:
◾Leave bags of groceries on the porch of a family where there is an unemployed person.
◾Leave a bouquet of flowers on the porch of someone who is grieving.
◾Send a single mom some movie tickets or bowling coupons.
Jim Kok says, “A friend of mine arrived at church early for a meeting, so she sat in her car listening to the radio. Someone pulled in and parked next to her. My friend turned and smiled. A few minutes later there was a knock on her window. It was the person she’d smiled at. ‘Thank you for smiling,’ she said. ‘I’ve had some very bad news today, and your smile just lifted my spirits.’ Yes, a smile can work wonders.”
How are you today? You may be worried about a job, a relationship, illness, fears about aging, trouble with kids, aging parents, an old hurt, or just “the blues.” Life sometimes knocks us down. It happens to everyone. The key is to get back up and keep moving. The psalmist offers a simple formula for getting through tough times:
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After I'd been out of commission for a few months, my pastor made a passing reference to "these chronic conditions." I corrected him—my condition wasn't chronic, it was just slow to abate. Now, five years on, I still don't know what to call my dis-ease and wonder whether I will ever feel “normal” again. But my dictionary defines chronic as "persisting for a long time," and there's no denying it's been a long time.
If I resist the word "chronic," I hesitate to claim "pain" as the problem. I've told doctors often that I don't really have pain. Rather, various discomforts and malfunctions, sometimes manageable, sometimes incapacitating, have wreaked havoc with my life and expectations.
