Is Unkindness a Loss?

I am reading a book written by George Swann. This work was written in 1921. Wow, thing have changed! The author speaks of being kind to your milkman, your washer woman, and your ice man. It's been a while!

But to the point. Swann pointed out that some people are unkind to others for no real reason at all. Some folk seem to need to feel "superior" to others, so they "joke" about the other guys clothing, or his old car. Many times these "jokes" are wrapped in funny jargon, but in reality they are meant to "cut" like a knife. Many a person had made a life-long enemy because of their "joke".

Once there was a lady who was still single after several years. She was sitting on a park bench reading a book. A "friend" came by and in the conversation, she told him every year her uncle buys her a new book for her birthday, so today she was reading his most recent gift.

The friend quipped, "Well by now you must have a vast array of books!" The lady never spoke to him again!

Jesus reminded us in Luke 18:9-14 of the danger of feeling "superior" to your neighbor. He told us a parable:

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Be kind to others! Never exalt yourself! If you should be exalted,

others will recognize it and exalt you in return kindness!