kindness and the wisdom of uncle ben

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

So said Spider-Man’s uncle Ben anyway. It’s in a movie, but it is true - the more strength you have, the greater the responsibility you have to help those around you.

Now, we can’t all be Spider-Man, but we can be kind. In fact, Paul treats kindness as a baseline, a foundation for how we consider each other:

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:32

The point he’s making is that kindness pays forward - He forgave us, we forgive others, He was compassionate to us; we show compassion to each other. You can’t overdo kindness, especially in sight of God’s irrepressible heart for us. He rewires the order of things so that when we’re tempted to ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ kindness asks ‘what’s in it for you?’ When we hear ourselves say ‘Why should I?’ kindness wonders why I shouldn’t.

So, with great power, let’s find creative ways today to live up to the greatest responsibility, lending our strengths, our finances, our time and our words to those around us. We can’t all be Spider-Man, but we might just make the world a better place, one kind thing at a time.