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August 2, 2008
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
The Power of Human Kindness, by Rubel Shelly
It is naïve to think there is never a time when force will be required
or when legitimate power has to exert itself. Parents do have to use
their authority in order to civilize and nurture unruly adolescents.
Bosses sometimes have to fire people who are working against the
company's policies and best interests.
Generally speaking, however, the power of human kindness is a superior
form of power to brute force. An attempt to lead by persuasion should
always go before the last-ditch requirement of confrontation and
pulling rank.
Gail Halvorsen was taught these ideas about kindness, service to
others, and the like back in Sunday School as a boy. Now a retired
colonel of the U.S. Air Force, he never tires of telling about a
situation where putting his convictions to work helped change the
course of history. It helped turn an enemy into an ally.
Halvorsen was a pilot in Europe during and after World War II. In
post-war Germany, he was on the ground in Berlin. Some of the many
hungry children in the once-prosperous Germany that Adolf Hitler had
reduced to penury flocked around him and his buddies to ask for food.
They were hungry. They were begging for a scrap or bread or a handout
from the soldiers' rations.
Turn an enemy into a friend and heal an old wound!
Halvorsen didn't have any food for the group of about 30 kids. He had
two sticks of gum in his pocket. He handed them to a couple of the
children -- and had a bright idea. The next time he dropped food into
the Soviet-blockaded area of Berlin, he dropped gum and candy out for
the children as well. When word got back to his superiors of what he
and now other pilots were doing, there was a chewing out for their
"unauthorized activities." But one general defended what the pilots
were doing. He encouraged them to keep it up. And soon American candy
companies were providing chocolate bars and chewing gum by the tons.
As Halvorsen puts it, "It wasn't the chocolate. It was hope!" Little
children and their beleaguered parents were encouraged to believe that
things would someday be better for them. Historians of the period have
credited the candy drops for helping change the attitudes of the German
people toward their recent enemies in war. The same non-government
program is also credited with altering American attitudes toward the
German people.
Maybe there are children for you to help in your neighborhood, through
your company's involvement in the larger community, or in some ministry
of your church. Maybe the people to think about aren't even children.
Maybe there is just someone who needs an act of positive kindness that
you can provide. There are certainly no guaranteed outcomes, but it
probably won't do harm to be gracious.
It could even turn an enemy into a friend or heal an old wound. Sweet!
I myself have gained much joy and comfort from your love, my
brother, because your kindness has so often refreshed the hearts of
God's people (Philemon 1:7 NLT).
---------
(c) 2008 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly <rshelly@rc.edu>'s
"FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for
previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* Servin' Safari
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200709/20070922_servinsafari.html
* The Least of These
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200407/20040718_least.html
* Leadership without Words
http://www.heartlight.org/hope/hope_990922_withoutwords.html
* RubelShelly.com
http://www.rubelshelly.com/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200808/20080802_humankindness.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
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Fly away on the wings of the year's best worship songs! Two CDs.
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