This weekend I watched the film 'Three billboards" and it has stayed with me. It's a powerful film, funny at times but very challenging as the characters are complicated not all good, not all bad, but very human and dealing with some very difficult issues. At times their behaviour is hard to watch but at other points, they surprise us.
What remains with me is the power of simple acts of kindness to bring about change in people. To let in some light.
There is a moment when one of the characters who has done some awful things in anger is offered a glass of orange juice by the person they had hurt. It is a very powerful moment and the undoing of its recipient.
It is so easy to react when someone is angry or rude to us, to fight back, and I wonder what difference it might make, how powerful it might be to react differently, to do a small act of kindness when it is least expected or deserved?
Not a new idea, of course, Jesus was well aware of the power of turning the other cheek and loving those who persecute.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. " Matthew 5 vs 43-48
What remains with me is the power of simple acts of kindness to bring about change in people. To let in some light.
There is a moment when one of the characters who has done some awful things in anger is offered a glass of orange juice by the person they had hurt. It is a very powerful moment and the undoing of its recipient.
It is so easy to react when someone is angry or rude to us, to fight back, and I wonder what difference it might make, how powerful it might be to react differently, to do a small act of kindness when it is least expected or deserved?
Not a new idea, of course, Jesus was well aware of the power of turning the other cheek and loving those who persecute.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. " Matthew 5 vs 43-48
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