HOT COALS & Acts of Random Kindness

Relearning A Lesson From The Love of My Life     

     Today I saw a miracle.  The love of my life simply demonstrated an act of random kindness a few days ago on someone who clearly is angry at us.  What do you think happened?  More kindness in return? Nah! We got a venomous multi-page hate filled letter. This letter was sent by a present day man - who is putting himself out there as a holy person -- recalling memories from a brain that he said was influenced by drugs -- with which he had been experimenting in his earlier years. TLOMLs kind act was like pouring hot coals on this man's head.  Something the Bible says might just happen. So don't expect warm and fuzzies when you practice A.R.K.ing.

     I have worked a lot with people who have experimented with drugs or outright used them. One of the things that objectively and scientifically has been determined is that memories, during the time of usage, are present day skewed, inaccurate and downright wrong.  Many times these toxic and distorted memories, when carried on to the present day are amplified and really are exaggerated. When the drug user is prodded by another person, they can be triggered into being volatile. This is precisely what happened today; nevertheless, we do not hate.  We do not react.  We do not fire back with "guns ablazing."  

As a matter of fact, any attempt to reason with such a person does not work out well. Things usually get worse. I tried this already with this person, and it didn't work out well. I guess my big mistake, when first encountering this person's faulty assumptions and paranoia, was to attempt to first reason with him.  The problem with that is such a person cannot see anyone else's point of view. He can only see his partners and his point of view. So the next thing I did was that  I really messed up BIG TIME! When reasoning did not work, I struck back  in writing.  So, yes indeed, I behaved badly as well.  Needless to say, this was NOT the right thing to do, and it is a regret I now have.  I'm not going to do that any more. (No.  I wasn't on drugs :+) 

     Now Acts of Random Kindness  (ARK) are the kinds of things that God would have each of us to do if it is at all feasible and possible. There is no question in my mind about that.  From now on, I am going to follow the lead of The Love of My Life, and practice a little A.R.Ksmanship.  I hope you will as well once and awhile.  Practicing the Art of A.R.K isn't easy, but many times (not always) it is the way to go.  Just don't expect an always positive answer. Hot coals produced by kindness can be a shocker... a shocker indeed.

Be Blessed Today ... Especially Today.
SoJourner

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