Kindness Flows From Agape
I’m so looking forward to the results of the first go round of my Franklin Makeover. Each week for the next number of weeks we will be focusing on developing a particular quality, virtue even.
My choice for the first week was ‘courage’, and I had been watching a series of recommended movies that depicted the courage of men who stood up to criticism and doubt and achieved their dreams as a result.
In addition to seeing those examples in stories, situations came up in my life which required quick decisions to take courageous actions. It more or less came down to responding to the decision-making of my subconscious, combined with “do it now, do it now, do it now.”
And it became reality. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight this quality in both my thoughts and observations of self and others.
When the second week came along, as a group we all were on the lookout for “Kindness”. I was utterly amazed at how this activity has the capacity to bring the entire group together as we recorded on a blog all the instances of kindness that we either observed or performed ourselves.
It’s really fascinating to learn that whether we ACT kindly, RECEIVE kindness or even OBSERVE kindness, the internal neurochemical is the same and affects us the same way. It evokes the SAME neurotransmitter.
The potential of this fact has tremendous implications concerning our ability to and the extent to which we are able to spread the effects of kindness in the world.
For any act of kindness there is an instigator, objects and zero to many observers. At each point serotonin enters the picture, but has the potential of becoming multiplied many times, as the object, for example, becomes aware of the kindness, the object then selects an appropriate response, and may or may not choose to reciprocate.
But the process faces exponential growth as each object makes a choice in how to respond to the act of kindness experienced, and each actor responds to the experience of being kind and observes the object, AND each observer responds to the experience of observing. So much out of one small action.
I am thinking about verse 12 in the 3rd chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossian church and what it teaches us about Kindness. “… clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
To make this a little simpler because of limited time and space to discuss this point, I’ve left out vs 13, but it really doesn’t change the fundamental principle.
We are commanded to CLOTHE ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And beyond that we are to do the same with Love… CLOTHE ourselves with Love.
The effect of clothing ourselves with Love as compared to the earlier list is to create the motivation, foundation and glue for the others. It is love that enables us to be compassionate. It is love that makes our kindness authentic.
It is love that drives our humility and love that enables out gentleness to grow and develop. It is love that motivates us to endure and exhibit patience. Love brings vitality to the virtues. It gives them context to grow and develop. As the scripture says, love is the overarching virtue. All the others are bound together in true harmony by love. It is indispensable.
Concentrating on love evokes all the others. They all flow out of love. And what is the definition of Love? In ancient Greek times, when these letters were written by Paul, there were multiple words used for love.
In other words, different types of ‘love’ were distinguished in the language, including “phileo” which refers to brotherly love, and “eros” which refers to romantic love.
In this case, the word used for love is “agape” which is understood to be love which is self-sacrificial and therefore considered to be the highest form of love. This ties in nicely with Og Mandino’s Scroll II in The Greatest Salesman in the World, “I will greet this day with love in my heart.”
All the exhortations he makes remind us how to develop this orientation of love in all of life. He also spells out the benefits of loving all of mankind, that is, what we get back. The flow of giving and receiving in our realm is fundamental.
Read more about my journey through the Master Key Experience by clicking here.
I’m grateful for the unexpected opportunity to think this through in the MKE context and also for your encouraging and insightful comments. I felt very drawn to the contents of Scroll II.
I had to read your blog multiple times it is so good Janet.
You really describe the instigation and origin of the kindness exercise and go further, back in history, to explain how it supports each person participating or observing.
I love the way you tie it all in together.
“In this case, the word used for love is “agape” which is understood to be love which is self-sacrificial and therefore considered to be the highest form of love. This ties in nicely with Og Mandino’s Scroll II in The Greatest Salesman in the World, “I will greet this day with love in my heart.”
Great blog. Thank you.