Wisdom Wednesday: C.S. Lewis on Kindness
"The Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on—including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning. This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become—and so on in a vicious circle forever. Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.”
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
There is so much to say here, but part of the point of Wisdom Wednesdays is to keep things concise. In our day, people in the church are calling empathy sin. In our day, members of churches are rejecting portions of the Sermon on the Mount because “that doesn’t work anymore, that’s weak.” In our day, cruelty to the poor, the immigrant, the refugee, and others who are marginalized is not only tolerated, it is often celebrated.
Lewis offers us both a stark warning and a wonderful encouragement. We can treat others kindly or cruelly with our words, including our online words. This not only reflects our hearts, it shapes them. When I start seeking to treat others kindly in word and deed, I start liking them more. I’m on the way to loving them, in fact. Our actions shape our hearts, and vice versa. But in the era of the culture war, we default to treating others poorly, especially if we see them as enemies in that war. This is yet another reason to reject the culture war paradigm. It corrupts the soul, fostering hate rather than love. It divides the church and prevents us from serving God and his kingdom.
If Lewis is right, these everyday choices are more significant than we know. Let’s seek to follow the way of kindness rather than cruelty, leading us to love rather than hate. This is the Way.
Oh thank you; thank you! Such a needed reminder!! "Our actions shape our hearts, and vice versa." We do indeed live from the inside out and the outside in, which makes every thought and emergent behavior of ultimate importance. Many, sadly, don't believe anyone is keeping records, so we carry on as if the world is blind or indifferent. But there is One who sees and does keep records.
A hearty amen to rejecting the culture wars, regardless of whom it’s coming from.