I don’t know a time when my heart had felt quite so hurt. I had done a favor for a friend, and now I heard that he thought I had malicious feelings towards him. For reasons I couldn’t understand, he was telling people close to me that I had said things I never said, and he implied that my motives—or what he assumed were my motives—were bad.
My first reaction was anger. I had done everything I could to help this friend, and I had done it in good faith and with love as my motivation. I had allowed myself to be inconvenienced and my schedule disrupted because he needed my help, and now it was all turning against me.
When I moved on from the initial feeling of anger, I found I was deeply hurt. There was no way to prove my intentions. No matter what I might say about it, he believed that I meant him ill.
Now I had to make a choice. I could continue to try to convince him of his error. I could stop reining in my anger and explode on him. I could even remove him from my life and carry on without his deliberate misinformation to torment me. Or… I could forgive.
I struggled with this. I knew he wouldn’t care if I forgave him or not. He had already written me off, he was already convinced I wanted to be mean. What good would my forgiving him do? I began to regret doing anything nice for him if this was the reward. At this point the Lord spoke to my heart, Why did you do that kind deed? Was it to earn your friend’s love? Was it to be thought of as good? Or was it because you know that kindness is what I want you to show at all times, to anyone and everyone.
I then decided to dedicate my attempted kindness to the Lord. I had done it for Him, and whether or not anyone understood that I did it with a heart full of love didn’t matter anymore. The Lord knew. And if people revile us, say all manner of evil against us, or misunderstand us and treat us cruelly, we should still love them and show kindness. 1 I determined that is what I would do because I love the Lord and He wants me to be kind.
- See Matthew 5:43–48 NLT. ↑