Just Be Nice

My friend Lisa’s request of her children growing up was “just be nice.” My ears perked up when she first shared this with her cheerful smile and loving laugh to our weekly Bible study. With all the responsibilities of parenthood weighing upon me with my small children, I was somewhat relieved to hear words of wisdom that seemed to both simplify and set such high expectations all at once.

Yes, let’s be nice. Let us be kind.

Sometimes I’m not nice. It’s quite frustrating. I know I’m doing it. I know that I’m crossing a line I don’t want to cross, and darn it, I cross it anyway. I complain. I snap. I fester. Why, why, why is it so hard?

After church and lunch with my family this afternoon, I had the great fortune of attending the graduation ceremony at Lausanne Collegiate School. Kanya Balakrishna, a 2005 graduate and the founder of The Future Project, was on hand to deliver the commencement speech. She’s quite impressive.

She challenged the graduates to write a “life sentence,” something that would guide them from this day on (for life). She explained that the world would work to define them by talent, gender, skin tone and more but that their individual passions could help to combat the box in which the world may trap them. She asked each of us, graduates, faculty and staff, family and friends alike to consider our own life sentences.

At eight years old, hers had been to change the world. Her life sentence had been redefined a bit over the years, but regardless of the goals and ambitions she had set at other points in her life, she had ultimately come back to this life sentence created at the age of eight.

Kanya is changing the world. She’s changing it through a different path than she expected to follow, but she is changing it for the better every day.

As she was speaking, I already had my life sentence echoing in my mind. I didn’t need the sixty seconds of silence Kanya offered to craft it; it was already ringing in my ears.

“I want to be light and love in the world so that every person I meet may recognize kindness.”

So easy to proclaim in my head. And then Kanya says, “Now, I want you each to take a moment to tell the person sitting next to you your life sentence.” Eeek.

I knew I was supposed to say my life sentence to the person on my right. I was nervous. He said his. I said mine, but I added, “I try, but I know I fall short.” I knew he would know.

I do fall short, but I do want to fully live into my life sentence. It would be my greatest joy to live that sentence to the fullest. I sometimes think I know what it will take and sometimes I get confused. I know I’m not the only one that struggles with this challenge.

I do believe that I can bring light and love in this world. I know I can show each person I meet kindness. It will take vigilance. It will take practice. It will take more than me.

This morning the choir sang one of my favorite anthems by John Rutter with words from a Sarum Primer prayer, “God be in my head, and in my understanding; God be in mine eyes, and in my looking; God be in my mouth, and in my speaking; God be in my heart, and in my thinking; God be at mine end, and at my departing.”

For hundreds and thousands of years, people have been dedicating themselves to kindness. I find great comfort that they also asked for help; they also knew who would provide them support and strength.

Thank you God for the constant reminders of our callings. Thank you for the gifts of voice and song that inspire us to live fully. I pray that I can open my heart fully to you so that you will be in my thinking and speaking that I may share your love with the rest of the world.

#Godislove 

 

With love and light,

LT