The Courage to Be Kind

We don't often associate kindness with boldness, but Rebekah in the Old Testament embodies both of these virtues. It is easy to have a generous impulse but then hold back. The mind has a dozen explanations and rationalizations ready at a moment's notice. They don't really want my help, they would think I'm being condescending or patronizing. Someone else will do it. I'm not qualified to help out with that. The root of all of these excuses is fear - fear that our kindness will be rejected or ridiculed, or that we will be plunged in over our head and find ourselves unequal to the task. But Rebekah had the audacity to be compassionate and kind. After fetching Abraham's servant some water, she didn't hem and haw and ask if there was anything hint hint that he or maybe his camels might need. No. She just jumped in and said I'm going to get your camels some water too. When the servant asked if her father might have a spare room for him, Rebekah didn't even think that maybe she should go home and check with her father if it was all right to invite a stranger and all of his camels over to stay the night. Because Rebekah practiced the courage to be kind every day, when the Lord through Abraham's servant asked her to leave behind her family and home and everything she had ever known to marry some man she had never met in some faraway land that she had never heard of, even though the rest of her family thought this sounded a little nuts, Rebekah did not shrink back in fear but boldly accepted the invitation. Kindness requires that we open our hearts to others. This openness can make us feel vulnerable and thus fearful, but it can also increase our empathy and feelings of compassion and closeness and understanding with those we open up to. I know that kindness can be scary but it is always worth it. Because Rebekah had the courage to be kind, she was blessed to be the mother of thousands of millions.