Kindness — Jim Cymbala

I wanna talk about the trait that separates us from the animal kingdom. When we're lacking it, we become like animals. A lot of our society, as you'll hear this, you'll understand now why it's, as they say, dog eat dog, and it's a jungle out there.

It's because it's lacking one very important trait. Let's look at the scripture. I'm gonna jump around today. We're gonna read from the Old Testament law, the Jewish scriptures, writings of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Kindness in the Law of Moses

Let's look at them. Deuteronomy 24, 10 through 15. When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. In other words, you're lending something, they're borrowing something, and to guarantee the repayment, they give you something as a deposit.

So don't go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. In other words, don't humiliate them.

Don't be going into their house and grabbing what they're supposed to give you as a pledge. Then, if the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession like a cloak. Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it.

Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God. In other words, if you take it as a cloak to prove that they're gonna pay back the money or whatever, if they're poor and sunset comes, you better get it back to them because what are they gonna sleep in that night?

You don't want them to be freezing. Hey, listen, what can I do? They're the one, they borrowed something from me. No, you give it back to them. You can get it again the next day if you need to hold on to it.

But be thinking about how they sleep at night and the fact that they might get cold. If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it.

Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God. And then finally, do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner, an alien residing in one of your towns.

Pay them their wages each day before sunset. Don't tell them a little short this week. I'll give it to you in a couple days. No, don't you do that to an alien because they're vulnerable, because they are poor and are counting on it.

Otherwise, they may cry to the Lord against you. Now you're in the soup, and you will be guilty of sin. Do you get what the picture is there? Don't you take advantage of someone because they're vulnerable, because if they go back at night and you're thinking everything's fine, all they have to do is look up to heaven and cry out to God and say, God, what am I gonna do?

And God says, it's not gonna be good for you. Now let's go to the New Testament and read in Colossians, I believe. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And then in Romans 15, verse one, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak.

What do you mean, Christians have failings? Oh, what a revelation. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Galatians 6, verse two, carry each other's burdens.

You mean some Christians have burdens that they carry around? Yeah. So carry each other's burdens. Don't let the person carry it themself. And in this way, you'll fulfill the law of Christ. We'll give one other verse later on.

So you got that picture in Deuteronomy? You saw that? In other words, if you take a pledge, don't be humiliating people and going into their house like, let me see what I wanna take. Don't you do that.

You let them go in and get it. Don't humiliate them just because you have the upper hand. Show a little kindness. And if they're poor, you better remember, you better return that cloak by sunset because it gets cold at night.

And if you're holding the thing they use as a blanket, it's not gonna be good. But if you return it, they'll be thankful. And that'll be marked down for you as a good deed before God, as a righteous deed.

And lastly, don't take advantage of aliens or widows or orphans because they're vulnerable. And if they're poor people, pay them. Pay them before the sun goes down. Don't be saying, I'll catch you at the end of the week.

They need it every day. So you show kindness even though you have the upper hand. Which brings me to the Dominican Republic. I wanna share with you a little story that happened to me. I shared it with my class, but I'll now share it with you.

Legalism and Kindness in the Dominican Republic

I've been to Dominican Republic a number of times, but first time I ever went was with my wife years ago. When Pastor Sam Portolatine, who pastors a church in Florida, and he used to be a part of this church.

He's the brother to some of our deacons. Two Portolatine men are in our church here as leaders. He and his wife, Jenny, told Carol and I, we know this woman in the Dominican Republic and she wants you to visit four or five churches.

Would you go? This is 25 years ago. Would you go to Dominican Republic? So I said yes, we felt we should do it. So we went there, met beautiful people. In fact, we ate in a little town in the middle of the island, Dominican Republic, with dirt floors and a fish that the poor pastor had caught and divided it up six ways, he and his wife and the four of us.

And he had like two potatoes, little potatoes, and they cut it up. And he had a blender. I don't know how that happened, but he made a drink. And it was one of the best meals we could ever remember because of the sweetness of the whole thing.

And it was just one light bulb hanging there. But the Dominican Republic, like Puerto Rico and a lot of their so-called Pentecostal churches, they are notorious for a harsh kind of legalism where they pound the people with rules and regulations.

Don't preach much about the grace of God and acceptance that we have with God through faith. It's more a great emphasis on works. You gotta be good enough to go to heaven. And they have what is called clothesline religion where they have a lot of rules for people, not so much for the men.

Men always get it off easy, but they got a lot of rules for women. In some of the churches there, you're not allowed to cut your hair, you can't wear makeup, and you definitely cannot wear pants. They wrongly read from the Old Testament a woman should not wear a man's garment, which was given to Israel but not to us, and so on and so forth.

I ended up going to Puerto Plata, and they told me as I was getting there, watch out, this pastor is super legalistic. Make sure Carol and Jenny do not wear pants of any kind in the meeting at night. So my wife and Jenny were certainly alert to that.

They didn't wanna offend anybody. So they were gonna wear a skirt, dress, whatever to go to the meeting at night. So we're in the hotel in the morning. Jenny and Carol come down. Sam and I were having breakfast together.

They were wearing slacks because it was early in the morning. We were in the hotel. Long time for the meeting. And who walks into the dining hall but the pastor? So the pastor walks in and he sits down at the table.

Hola, dio le benditas. Oh, so good, and we're getting translation. He didn't speak much English. They froze. We all realized we have to keep sitting at this table as long as possible because if they stand up and we get out, he's gonna see that and he's gonna go off possibly.

We don't wanna offend him, but we didn't know he was coming. We're talking, we're stalling. They need to use the restroom, but they cannot get up from that table. So what happens is they, finally he goes, listen, I came here because I wanna take you a tour.

I wanna take you around to see Puerto Plata. You gotta see Puerto Plata. And it's a beautiful city. It's up in the northern part and it's a beach city. So we realize it's over. We gotta get up. So everybody gets up and we walk out and we get to the car and he must have sized up everything there and we get in the car and Carol and I and Jenny are in the back, crowded in and the driver is there in the front and the pastor is on the window and I think Sam was in the middle.

We were really cramped in. He wouldn't say a word. Once we got up from the table and he saw what was what, he just shut down totally. Wouldn't look at us, wouldn't make eye contact, wouldn't say a word.

So we go about 10, 15 blocks. He takes out a piece of paper and he starts writing on something. So we're driving. We come to a stoplight. He suddenly hands the piece of paper to the driver and opens the door and just flees the car.

We're like, whoa, what was that about? Sam, pastor of Puerto Latín, translates the note to the driver who was from his church. It said, I'm getting off at the next stop. Do not let these people near my church or near any of my members.

Oh, that shook up Jenny and my wife and we finally went back to the hotel and we said, we're gonna have to have a strategy meeting what we're gonna do here because I'm speaking at his church that night.

Jenny and Carol just got up in our grill real quick and said, we're not going. I said, no, go. They said, no, we're not going. The guy just ran out of the car, he wrote a note. We're not going to that meeting.

We could be lynched or who knows what will happen to us. We'll never return, we'll die in Santo Domingo. So I said, well, I'm going because he asked me to preach and I'm gonna go. They said, don't go, do not go.

That's not gonna be good. He's mad at you too that you would be married to us with these people. So anyway, I said, no, I'm not backing down. I'm gonna go. They agreed, they stayed home. So Sammy and I go, we go to the church.

There's a couple hundred people there. They're excited because there's a visiting speaker. So two things I remember from the meeting. They had this tradition that if you come in the church, you have to pray.

You're not holy or accepted by God until you pray. You can't just take your seat and listen. You have to pray. But you can only pray at the altar because God isn't in the balcony of this church or there.

So at any time, people were just running to the front, walking in, kneeling down, lifting their hands, shouting out in Spanish prayers, and whatever was going on, announcements, praise and worship, whatever.

Just, it was that. The other thing that was going on is they had this thing I remember so clearly that unless you were making noise and shouting glory to God, the meeting wasn't complete. But it was almost by rote.

The people's heart was in it. They were just doing it. So I was watching a woman doing the praise and worship, and she went on also when I was preaching. She was filing her nails in about the fourth row.

I remember, she's just filing it. But every few seconds, she would just go, santo, santo, senor, amen, amen, santo. And I'm going, what in the world? What is that about? And she just kept filing her nails.

And she had a little baby next to her who was making noise. And while I got up to preach, she would still do that, still filing the nails. I don't know what kind of nails she had, but she was filing. And while she's filing, she was yelling up at me while I was just starting to speak.

Santo, santo, santo, senor. And then the kid made too much noise, and she dropped the thing. And then in Spanish, I told you to be quiet and started beating him down while I was preaching. It's like a mugging.

And I thought, wow, this is different. So they introduced me. I got up, and everybody looked like the same, just long hair, like a pale kind of look, and just everyone. And listen, however somebody wants to dress is up to them.

It's when we try to enforce that on others that it can become very unkind. So anyway, I got up to preach, and I said, I want to preach. I'm so happy to be here at Santo Domingo. Amen, amen. It was the kind of thing, you could just say, row, row, row your boat, and everybody would just go, wah, you know.

How many ever been serviced like that in your life? All right, so some of you know. Just wah. So I said, so I want to preach about tonight. I'm here to give a message. And Sammy's interpreting, Pastor Sam, and I go, I want to talk about dressing properly when you come to church.

So Sam just, he wouldn't say, he went, what, what? And I said, translate it, translate it. He said, what'd you just say? I said, translate it, you heard me. And they were going, oh, hallelujah, hallelujah.

So I said, yeah, because you know, a lot of people come to church, they're not dressed properly. And they walk into church, they're not dressed properly. Amen, amen. And I said, they don't know anybody there.

They're ignorant about what, you know, the way you should dress when you come to church. In fact, not only when you come to church, even when you go out to work every day, you gotta be dressed the way God wants you to be.

Woo, they're going, wow. They were standing, pointing at me, yes. Amen. So I said, yes, because what, and now the pastor's on there. He hasn't looked at me, hasn't greeted me, never said a word to me.

So, so I said, because in Colossians it says, everybody put on compassion and kindness and patience. And on top of everything else, the passage goes on, put the belt of love on top of all of it. Otherwise you're not dressed properly, whether you're in the choir or you're out there, whether you've been going to church for 40, 50 years, you're not dressed properly.

You're not dressed. Oh, I got quiet. They wanted clothesline religion and I was going another way. So I was getting into it. I really got inspired that night, come to think of it. And Sammy just was translating, Pastor Sam was translating, and suddenly he stormed off the platform.

He just walked off and just, and walked off, right? So I said, I don't care. I'm gonna Brooklyn this whole church here if I have to, you know what I'm saying? Come on, you know what I'm saying? So I'm preaching.

He goes off, this is the truth before God. I'm preaching another five minutes. Suddenly the lights go out and the sound goes off. He Brooklyned me, how about that? I said to him, I yelled at Sam, keep translating.

I don't care if we have no mic, keep doing it. And I'm gonna say, I wanna tell you all, unless you're dressed in love, unless you have kindness on, you're not dressed. And he's translating. And now the people, it's so dark, you can't see anybody, some of them leaving, but there's just a few elderly people who couldn't get out of their seats and I'm preaching to them.

And then it had to end because they left, no lights. He was gone. I said, I think we're done, Sam, we can leave now. And we walked out. No one said goodbye. Our wives were waiting back there. Oh, you're back home safe, you made it.

Like we had gone to Vietnam or something. But you know, that's what separates us from the animal kingdom, is kindness. When humans lose kindness, worse, when church people lose kindness, now you're in a very bad place.

Love, Compassion, and the Christian Life

There's a lot of unkind people, a lot of unkind preachers, I've met them. You've met them, unkind choir members all over America. See, what the Bible tells us is that you can know a lot of the Bible, a lot of verses, really know theology and be unkind.

That you could have spiritual experiences with God somewhere back in your past where you really met God, but you're unkind. You're not cheerful, you're not kind, you're not compassionate. You can have faith to move mountains.

And yet it all amounts to nothing, 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, right? Because you don't have love, and what is love? Love is patient, love is kind. Compassion and kindness, God says we have to put that on every day or everything's gonna get crazy real quick.

Why? Because we all have burdens and we all have weaknesses. And if you don't have compassion and kindness instead of helping people, you'll judge people and think you're spiritual because you're judging them.

If a person has a burden, you think by telling them they have a burden that's gonna help them? And all of us don't battle with besetting sins? And after Christ has done so much for us and the patience he has shown us and the compassion and the kindness, this must be a sin that makes all of heaven shake.

Because to be human and make a mistake, to be tempted and tell a lie, to do those things, that's wrong, but they can understand that. But after all the kindness and compassion God has shown us, now I'm not gonna show compassion to Vanessa?

I'm not gonna show kindness to her? After everything God has done for you and I, I'm gonna play hardball with her and I'm gonna be just duro, hard? This is why a lot of people don't have friends. You know why a lot of Christians don't have many friends?

Because they're so unkind, no one wants to be around them. That's the truth. And they know their verses and they've had experiences with God and they'll tell you all their war stories, but basically they're blind to the fact that they're unkind, they're not kind.

They don't care about you. They don't care about the other person. They don't talk pleasant. They'll take advantage of you or they think they're beneath you. They think their race or their island or their background is superior somehow to you.

They're so unkind, so unkind. White people can be so unkind. Black people can be so miserably unkind. West Indians can be so unkind. Caribbean people can be so unkind. Latinos, Asians, so unkind. All of us.

And that's what separates us from the animal kingdom. The only thing that separates us from, you know, we breed, we eat food, reproduce, all of that, sleep, rest. But you'll never ever, if you turn on National Geographic, Wild, if you're watching that program, you'll never see like a baby zebra was born with a defect and it can't run properly.

You'll never see a lion run up to it and go, yo, what a shame. Lay down, I took a couple years of med school. Let me see if I can put a little stint on your leg so that you could use that thing. No, they're gonna pounce.

There's no kindness. Nobody wants to help anybody in the animal kingdom. You know, the truth is that the Lord takes into account that all of us have burdens that we are all carrying. As my friend, late brother Sorensen says, I wish I could say it in Spanish the way he told it to me decades ago.

He said, remember, brother Jim, everyone has something that's not convenient to them. Everyone. You know, some people in Christianity, their problem is they got a mouth that won't stop. They just gossip.

They just talk about people who aren't present all the time and criticize, okay? Now, they would never do drugs, and they would never watch nasty movies, and they would never do those kinds of things.

They have some kind of conscience for that, but talking, they'll just chew you up. To another person, they would never use that, but they're just, all they do is take in the world. You ever meet people like that?

It just scares you to death. All they listen to is worldly music, which has so many overtones of ugly stuff. All they watch is movies that glorify what? Sex, immorality, murder, whatever, perversion of every kind.

That's all they take in. I read something interesting this week. I never thought of it. You know, the Bible says in the end, Jesus is gonna separate the sheep from the goats, and this preacher brought out, who died a long time ago, he said, the difference between sheep and goats, which you can find out real quick, is by what they eat.

Sheep want grass. That's all they're gonna eat. Goats? Throw down a two-month-old pork chop. They'll eat anything, and the person was saying, that's how we can look at ourselves. What do we feed on?

What are you feeding? What are you feeding your mind? What are you feeding your ear and your eye gate? What's coming in there? It got quiet, rightfully so, for all of us, but they would never gossip, but they got that weakness.

They just, the world, they had this attraction to the world. They think that's really important to be up-to-date on everything in the world, the styles, the this, the that. Then another person's not interested in that at all, but they have a temper that's out of control.

They don't gossip. They're in the Word. They love God's Word, but you just set them off, they're gonna go Brooklyn on you quick, right? They're gonna go off on you. Don't we all have something? Now you see, without compassion and without kindness, it's a free-for-all.

Everyone just judge each other. Everybody just look at what, you know, you just be a fault finder. That's not being spiritual. Seeing what's wrong in people, look in the mirror, you'll see a lot. When I look in the mirror, I'm gonna be very, very slow to talk about anybody else when I see all the things God has had to put up with me.

I'm no bargain. Those of you who respect me and all that, I hope you do. I hope I can be a blessing to you, but I'm no bargain. Ask my wife. Ask the people who work with me. Ask Veola, ask Karen, ask the pastors.

They know how utterly human I am. So we all have something that's not convenient. It's a burden, so now what are you gonna do? Point it out or help the person with it? That's what we're gonna do, and you can do this today.

You might not be able to preach in front of thousands of people today, but every one of us can show kindness to someone by helping them with their burden. Why, you don't have a burden? How many know that you're not a bargain either?

Lift up your hand, come on. So what are we gonna do? After God's been so kind and patient with us, we're gonna play hardball with other people? Does that make any sense? See, imagine those poor people in Santo Domingo in that church, that pastor, what a total deception.

He's talking about whether a woman is wearing pants, and he's meaner than a hornet, but a lot of religion is like that. Why do you think people have a bad opinion of Christianity? Because Christians are such a bad advertisement.

We're talking verses, and we're not showing kindness, and the Bible says if anybody has, you know, bear with one another's weaknesses. We're all weak, don't you get it? Look at me. I just wanna reason with you.

Bearing With the Weak and Understanding Their Burdens

Don't you know that everyone is going through battles that you don't know about? Don't you know there's weak areas in their lives where they're vulnerable? Don't you know that? You can't tell it. Like, you look at me.

You don't know that I got like a torn rotator cuff or something's going on in my right shoulder that's really nasty, but by just looking at me, you might not be able to know it, but that's the way we are spiritually.

People are going through things. Attacks of the devil, don't you understand we're all in a warfare? The devil's coming in, and then what? You're gonna mingle with Christians and have them pound you too?

Is that insane? So we all have weaknesses. Bear with one another's weaknesses. Help the persons with weakness. Don't look down your nose at someone and say, well, back in my day and when I knew God, I've had experiences with God.

If you're that spiritual, help the person. You that are spiritual, help the person. Judging people and, quote, seeing through people, that doesn't take any great spirituality. My late father-in-law used to tell me, Jim, you gotta get to the place in life where you just don't look at what people do.

You try to understand why they do it. I'm not talking about justification now. I'm not talking about you're a product of your environment and thus it justifies you to do anything. That's not found in the Bible.

But try to understand what they're going through. Ask God for insight so that you can help them. Because if we're not gonna show kindness and compassion to other people, would you please tell me who will?

No? You think there's a lot of compassion on the A train? The three? No, folks are nasty. But we're supposed to be putting on compassion and kindness. I dread the thought of all the unkind things I have said or done in my life.

So wrong. After God has shown such kindness. Can you imagine how the angels must look at some of us as they see us carry on so unkind, so with no little, very little compassion, and they're going, wait a minute.

You're, he showed, he gave his son, he died for you. And you're gonna what? You're gonna judge somebody else after he wiped away everything you've ever done wrong? Have you lost your minds down there?

And it attacks all of us. So how do you get kind? You don't get kind by trying to be kinder. When the Bible says put on compassion, put on kindness, it's another way of saying put on the Lord Jesus. And you gotta do it daily.

Or it's this verse, 1 Corinthians 13, verse four. Love is patient. Love is what? Whose love is that? Not your love. That's God's love. God's love in us makes us patient. God's love in us makes us kind.

God has to make us kind. We are not naturally kind. We're kind to people who we like, who we relate to, but otherwise we can get all kinds of just unkind and lack compassion. And I just wanna appeal to you.

Becoming a Living Manifestation of God's Love

I felt God lay this on my heart today. Let's ask God to make us a manifestation of his love, not by just talking the talk, but by showing people compassion and kindness. And one thing about kindness, it's like this.

When you're kind to someone, you can actually provoke kindness in them. And when you're mean to people, you can provoke meanness in them. Am I right here? In other words, when you're kind to someone and you just show compassion and kindness, God can actually use that to speak to them.

And they can go and say, man, I've been so unkind, and that person's been so kind to me. Look back in your life with me. Haven't there been people in your life that have so blessed you because they've been so kind?

Has anyone had some parents or people in your life that have just been so kind to you and showed compassion on you? Didn't just judge you. Anybody can judge, but it takes a real Christian to show kindness and compassion.

And when you're younger in the things of God and you read the Bible and you don't understand how it all really works, you go, oh, this spiritual gift and faith to praise someone for someone, and they can get healed, and oh, I can go out and minister and I can preach, and oh, I wanna learn how to teach, and I wanna have revelations of God.

But in the end, if you're not kind, the Bible says it all amounts to nothing. For if I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have faith to move mountains and understand all mysteries and have not love, what am I?

I'm a sounding gong, a clanging, not cymbala, but a clanging cymbal. Oh, God, make us kind. Pastors are leaving the ministry now at 1 ,700 a month, and you know what a lot of their testimonies are? In America, 1 ,700 a month.

The unkindness of the congregation. I just heard from a pastor whose heart was broken. We prayed from, he told me that when he came and he was there two years, he wanted to see the church start to grow and all of that, but he then realized the board and how they operate in that church, they were just like iron, like, hey, we hired you, we could fire you, pal.

And he said, one guy, as he just opened his heart in a board meeting, one guy said, out in the open said, we know you came, that you thought you'd change us. Guess what? You're not changing us. How'd you like to pastor in that church?

With people talking like that in the board meeting. These are the leaders of the church, unkind. And there are some of us who bear scars, don't we, from just people being unkind to us. But God can heal those, and then he can use them to teach us, let's be kind.

How many wanna be kinder now than you've ever been before, all right? So we're properly dressed. What good is it if you put on a suit and a tie or a nice dress and a nice pair of shoes and you come to church in your Sunday best?

For what if we're unkind? And let me just repeat this again. You can be in the faith for 40, 50 years, you can know lots of Bible verses and still be so unkind. I feel so bad for people who can't make friends because of their unkindness, and they have a blind spot.

They don't understand. They're so unkind, so self-centered, so abrasive. Some people grow up in a house, it's so abrasive. They say abrasive things. They're not compassionate. They just, whatever that comes in their head, they're gonna say it, and they're proud of it, even if it hurts you.

Well, I gotta speak my mind. No, let's measure our words and ask God to make us kind. I've met some kind people recently or studied them a little carefully. What a blessing when you meet a kind person.

Prayer for Compassion, Kindness, and Forgiveness

Let's pray. God, first start with me and the pastors and the deacons and deaconesses. Please let your love so control us that we are kind. We bear one another's burdens. We help the weak. We don't judge the weak.

Do we have to make corrections? You told us to do that. We have to even rebuke people sometimes. We have to do it out of spirit of love. God, would you so get a hold of us that everything we do, we do with a spirit of compassion and kindness?

The choir, God. I thank you that they sing so nice and you've given them openings and a certain notoriety, but God, better than their music, make them kind. Every tenor, every alto, every soprano, make them kind with each other.

Take away the harshness, the jagged edges that are in our personalities. Make us like Jesus. The congregation, fill us with kindness and compassion so our children and our grandchildren will be around kindness and they'll model that and they'll say, I wanna be kind like my dad.

I wanna be kind like my mother. They don't see it at first or they don't understand it, but they feel it. Let our homes and apartments be places of kindness and compassion. God, we live in such a harsh world.

Political unkindness. International unkindness. And the media, people so unkind. Always trying to do a gotcha. Gotcha. Save us from that. Make us different than the world so that people will see Jesus when they rub shoulders with us.

It will open doors for us to minister and share the good news because they'll say, there's something different about you. I ask you to forgive me for every unkind word, every unkind thought, every unkind action I've ever done in my life.

I thank you that you've forgiven it, but I say it out loud, Lord, forgive us for our unkindness. Forgive us for our selfishness, our judgmentalism, thinking it's spiritual to look down our nose at people instead of helping them.

Baptize us in such kindness, Lord, that we can be a testimony to people that folks of different races and different backgrounds can not just get along, they can love each other like brother and sister.

They can forgive, they can help, they can lift burdens, they can help the weak person. This is a good day for us to confess our sins before you, Lord. All sins of unkindness, all secret sentences, mean things said behind closed doors, behind people's back, please forgive us, God.

How can we do that after what you've done for us? Lord, have mercy on us. Help us to be careful as we mingle with one another that we look for ways to lift up, not tear down. Take burdens off, not lay new ones on.

Help us never to take advantage of people who are below us in social strata. The widow, the orphan, the alien, the person who owes us something, someone who works for us. Help us never to be harsh, but help us to be compassionate and kind on the job, in the school, everywhere.

Before we had two minutes that we greeted each other, let's have another two minutes of hugging one another. How about that? Everybody stand. We're gonna have a hug in of kindness and compassion. Choir, hug each other.

Everybody hug each other. Come on, give someone a hug and a good word.