Be Ye Kind

(March 12, 2007)

The Rev. Harold A. Shirley is one of two “fathers in ministry” from my growing up days in Yazoo City, MS. Harold and Betty still regularly offer me encouragement from their home in South Carolina, many times in response to this weekly Spam-o-gram. What a privilege to have a relationship that transcends a half century, and the continental divide that separates us.

As a boy in the “Junior Department” I recall “Brother Shirley” making visits to our Sunday School assembly. It was on one such visit that he shared a verse of scripture. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32. I still think of Brother Shirley when I hear that verse.

The apostle Paul spoke a lot in his “epistles” to the fledgling Christian congregations to stop bickering and tearing each other down; and John, the 90-year-old senior statesman of the Christian church, pleaded “My little children, LOVE one another”.

Sometimes, Christians can be very unkind to each other. We get frustrated when we are “right” and someone else is “wrong”. We get angry when we perceive that someone else is “not doing his/her job”. We sometimes treat those closest to us with a rudeness we would never show a total stranger, or even our enemies.

It is never OK for a Christian to be rude! One unguarded word may destroy a lifetime of good works, not to mention one’s “witness”.

I need to be reminded of that fact regularly, more than anyone. We will recite and remind ourselves of that wonderful verse in our worship in the weeks to come. I hope many of you will recite the verse Rev. Shirley taught me 50 years ago as you start your day; remembering that none of us will be winsome, authentic disciples without a kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving spirit. And no matter what good we may do, what lofty words we may speak, if we are un-kind, no one will believe our sincerity.

What I remember most about Betty and Harold Shirley is their kindness, tender hearts, loving and forgiving spirit! Keep speaking the truth in love!

From the Quote Garden
“Don't be yourself - be someone a little nicer.”
~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966