speaker 0:   0:00
Good morning, and welcome to starting right with Danny Mac. I'm gonna be here five times a week to help you get a great five minutes. Start to your day. I'm gonna give you some encouragement in some hole from God's word. Because I really want you to know that you matter, that you are important and you have a purpose. So I invite you to subscribe to this podcast and join me here Money to Friday to help your day by starting right with Danny Mac. There's a lot of talk right now about how crazy it's getting note there with people fighting over toilet paper and Lysol and who knows what all else a CZ we face is Corona virus together. Let's take a step back and we, instead of talking about all the negative stuff today, I want to talk about something really great. I want to talk about how we can be kind to one of their, especially in the midst of something like this Corona virus. I want to start by telling you this story that I came across just recently. George Saunders is a writer, and he was asked to give a speech to the graduating class of Syracuse University. His speeches about kindness and in it he talked about all the things that he'd been through in his life. And there is only one thing, though, that after 40 years that he still regret, Ah, lack of kindness, not because of what he did, but because of what he didn't do. Listen to this story. I think it's great. In seventh grade, this new kid joined our class, and in the interest of confidentiality, her convocation speech name will be Ellen. Ellen was small and shy. She wore those blue cat's eye glasses that at the time, only old Ladies war. When she was nervous, which was pretty much always. She had a habit of taking a strand of hair into her mouth and chewing on it. So she came to our school and our neighborhood and was mostly ignored, occasionally teased with things like your hair tastes good was that kind of thing. I could see the herd in her, and I still remember the way she would look after such an insult. Her eyes were cast down. She was looking as if she was a little gut kicked, just being reminded of her place in things. She was trying as much as possible to disappear, and after a while she turned and drift away, a strand of hair still in her mouth at home. I imagined after school, her mother would say, How was your day, sweetie? And she'd say, Oh, it was fine. And her mother would say, Making any friends. She go? Sure, Yeah, Lots. Sometimes I see her hanging around her front yard as if afraid to leave it. And then she just moved. That was it. No tragedy, no final hazing. Just one day she was there. And the next she wasn't end of story. No. Why do I regret that? Why, 42 years later, Um, I still thinking about it relative to most of the other kids. I was actually pretty nice to her. I never said an unkind word. Er, in fact, I sometimes even mildly defended her, but it still bothers me. So here's something I know to be true, although it's a little corny, and I don't know quite what to do with it. What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there in front of me suffering, and I responded, Reserve oddly, mildly selfishly, isn't it? Agreed story in John, Chapter 15 for 17. Jesus said this. He said These things. I command you that you love one another in the midst of this Corona virus. We have an opportunity to show kindness to people around us. We have an opportunity to be able to make a difference in their lives to help them where they are at. We have to keep this social distancing thing going on to make sure that we're not transmitting this virus. So we must responsible with that make sure that we're not guilty of adding to the problem. But people still need contact, not physical contact, but contact. There's friends around us that are, Ah, home and they're all alone. Some of them are widows or widowers. Some of them are elderly. They didn't someone to give him a phone call and say Hi, how you doing? How are you? How's it going today? They somebody to get on the Internet with him and play a game of chests so they could have some fun and have a distraction from where they're at. You have a neighbor that may not be able to get out or is afraid to get out because of the virus. And they need groceries. You're gonna go get some groceries. Why not phone them up and ask him what you can get for them while you are out? Why not make sure that your neighbours have got their medication that they need? Why not just phoned in somebody and say hi? I'm thinking about you. I hope you're doing okay. Simple acts of kindness in the story of George Saunders that we just read. His greatest regret was the thing he hadn't done to show kindness to someone who needed it, to be able to show them some validation to be able to show them that somebody cared to be able to show that they were worth something. Can you do that today? Your neighbors and your friends Can you reach out with kindness and let them know that they are important and choose to do that on purpose so that they can see God's love shining through you. Thank you for joining us today. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Check out our website at I am Danny mac dot com. And be sure to join us here weekdays. Money to Friday for starting right with Daddy Mac. Have a great day, God bless.