Rules or Kindness

We all like rules. Rules help us to know and understand exactly what to do. Rules help define where the boundaries are and help to keep us safe. Rules help us to have limits for ourselves and others. Rules help us exercise some control over what is going on around us.
We all like kindness. Kindness makes us feel good. Kindness allows us to be good to others and others to be good to us. Kindness is a way of showing love to someone who may desperately need to know they are loved. Kindness is acceptance of another.

When Jesus left the field, he entered their meeting place. There was a man there with a crippled hand. They said to Jesus, "Is it legal to heal on the Sabbath?" They were baiting him.
He replied, "Is there a person here who, finding one of your lambs fallen into a ravine, wouldn't, even though it was a Sabbath, pull it out? Surely kindness to people is as legal as kindness to animals!" Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." He held it out and it was healed. The Pharisees walked out furious, sputtering about how they were going to ruin Jesus.

Matthew 12:0-14

So which one "trumps" the other? Rules or kindness? It appears to me that kindness is our trump card, so to speak. We all have rules about what people should or should not be like. We all have expectations about what should or should not be happening in someone elses life. We all have rules, spoken or unspoken, about how we think the world and people should look and behave. We all shun those who do not fall into the "rules" we have made. We tell ourselves they are too conservative, too liberal, listen to the wrong music, drink, are gay, go to a different kind of church, divorced, etc. - on we go with our list of rules and how it should work. It keeps us safe we think. It keeps us within the limits and boundaries that God wants us in. Rules help us know the difference between right and wrong.

Kindness is legal too. It is available to all people all the time. We can still be kind to those who we think are too conservative, too liberal, listen to the wrong music, drink, are gay, go to a different kind of church, divorced, etc. They need kindness too. They need kindness even if they and who they are do not fall within our rules. Kindness brings them to a place of trusting. Kindness brings them to a place that they can be healed. Kindness brings us to a place where we can understand.

Isn't this the point, not to be so caught up in the rules that we miss out on rescueing and being kind to someone in need? How many times have we missed out on being like God to someone, showing them Jesus because we have to follow our rules? How many times have we passed by someone in need of our kindness, but because the rules say "not on the sabbath," we keep on walking. How many times have we left somone with no kindness because we have to be right and follow our rules? How many times have we as Christians missed the chance to love because we told ourselves "I am a christian and I can't allow myself to be kind to you, you (fill in the blank) and that is not a part of what the rules say you can do as a christian." So we avoid, we create walls, and we stand in our world right, as those in need stand outside in need.

Today, just today do one thing. When presented with the choice to be right or kind pick kindness.

Namaste'