The Kindest Person in the Room

Luke 6:35,36 I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most High God. Yes, because God is good even to the people who are full of sin and not thankful. Give love and mercy the same as your Father gives love and mercy.

Different people are smart in different ways. You may be highly gifted in one way whilst the next person is highly gifted in another. That’s how it’s meant to be.

The mistake we make though is when we imagine that (a) everyone should be good at the same thing we’re good at, and (b) if they’re not, they’re stupid.

Sound a bit harsh? Not at all. It happens all the time. How often have you found yourself saying, “I just don’t understand why that person doesn’t …”. What you’re really saying is, “Why don’t they see things the way I do? Why aren’t they good at what I’m good at?”

I went through the first part of my life looking down my nose at people with a lower IQ than mine – belittling them, making them feel inadequate – blind to the fact that many of them had something I didn’t have, something far more valuable, far more important. EQ. Emotional intelligence. A gentleness, a kindness that I’d never had; the ability to overlook the faults of their enemies: to be good to people who were bad to them.

Luke 6:35,36 I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most High God. Yes, because God is good even to the people who are full of sin and not thankful. Give love and mercy the same as your Father gives love and mercy.

Hmm. It turns out that the kindest person in the room is often the smartest person in the room. Love your enemies. 

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.