The Power of Kindness an Inspirational Story
TRANSCRIPT
There are so many movies that you can pick to speak out of. And this one is an oldie, but you just can't go past it. It's the movie Wonder. How many of you have seen it? Okay, so three quarters of us. For those that haven't, or those that want to watch it again, we are going to screen it after our family gathering this morning, and you will need your tissues.
I laughed, I cried, I was inspired. All of those things make up a good movie. As does the fact. And it's a stretch, but there is a scene with snow and a Christmas tree and a carol. I wouldn't go as far as calling this a Christmas movie, but there is definitely a Christmas scene in it. So, you know, it's got my tick of approval.
Absolutely. Ultimately, though, what stood out to me the most as I have watched this over and over again is the question, where do we find the courage to live out the beauty of Christmas? Where do we find the courage to live out the beauty of kindness? Kindness sounds so simple, doesn't it? I actually think sometimes we associate the word kindness with kids. We tell our kids, like, be kind to your sister. Share your toys. And it's something that actually does have to be taught because kids can actually be kind. Brutally unkind. And for that matter, so can adults. One of the first memories I have of something unkind being said to me as a kid was when I was in about, I was in grade six and I was about 11 years old and, um, My teacher had asked me to go and deliver a message to all of the year seven teachers. I guess I'm aging myself out here because obviously it was before they had simple technology like send a text message. But anyway, so Ruth was sent, you have to understand I was an incredibly shy kid. I so nervous already about having to go mid class, knock on the doors and give this message to the Year 7 teachers.
And to give you some context, I was a skinny, gangly, glasses wearing girl with frizzy, out of control hair because I had not yet discovered the wonder of hair product. And so that's just to give you context for the rest of this story. And I delivered most of the messages and I arrive at the last classroom, knock on the door and the teacher looks up and clearly she was annoyed at having been interrupted mid lesson, and she yelled. What do you want, you, you mop head? I can laugh now, but quite honestly, as a preteen, it really impacted my confidence and my self image. And I'm sure, like me, there are many of you that have a story that you could share, perhaps now with some laughter, but at the time that really wounded you, that really impacted you, maybe. You, upon reflection, were the one who has even at times been unkind to somebody else.
Unkind words and actions can leave lasting scars. But on the flip side, kindness has the power to heal and to inspire. And there is something actually breathtakingly beautiful and irresistible about seeing kindness in action. It draws people in and it's simply beautiful. It radiates a beauty from within.
And so this movie captures us to live out kindness, to choose kind. And throughout the movie, we see themes of what this looks like and how it takes courage to choose to live kind. So, Wonder is based on the book of the same name and for those book lovers amongst us, the book is always better, but the movie does a fantastic job of capturing the heart of the story.
And so it's about a boy, his name is August Pullman, they call him Augie for short. He is a 10 year old and he is getting ready to start the fifth grade. Um, Augie is an ordinary kid. But he happens to have been born with a craniofacial issue. It's a genetic thing we discover and because of that he looks different to everybody else.
He says that it makes his face surprising for people when they meet him for the first time. And he introduces himself in the story. The movie actually begins with a monologue from Orgy. And he says, I actually feel ordinary. I love doing ordinary things. I love eating ice cream. I love playing my Xbox. I love annoying my sister.
But then he goes on to say, but ordinary kids don't make other kids run away in the playground. And ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go. And so because he is so aware of what, um, the reaction that people have to him, he explains that he wears a special hat. Face helmet all of the time. And we've got a picture of that in his room.
He says when he's not wearing his helmet, he chooses to look down. He never looks up and looks people in the eyes because he doesn't want to see their face, uh, betray their inner thoughts that they're thinking about him. And so he's been homeschooled his entire life. And now for the first time he is being sent to real school and he is.
All he wants is to be accepted, and for his classmates to know if they would be willing to look past what he looks like, that he would make a really good friend. And so the story of Wanda captures his first year at school. And I just wonder, If you could imagine with me the bravery that was required by Augie to show up at school.
And across the movie we see that the school year is really hard for him. He is bullied, he is misunderstood, he struggles to make friends, he is teased. Kids go so far to say that if you touched him you would get the plague. That's how cruel the kids are. He feels alone, he feels isolated and he feels overlooked.
And Augie's story really challenges us, I think, to rethink our focus on appearance. In the movie, he questions, will it always matter what people think of me? And I wonder how many of you have echoed that. a similar question in your life. Perhaps you too have felt alone or overlooked or struggled with self identity and wondering what people think of you.
Well, God gives us a different perspective. See, it's not what's on the outside. That equals wonderful. Around a thousand BC, during a time in Israel's, uh, history, their first King Saul had failed. He had disobeyed God. And so now the people were in need of a new King and God wasn't looking though, this time for someone with outward strength or stature, he really wanted someone with a heart.
That was aligned to his own. And so God sent the prophet Samuel and many of you will be familiar with this story. He sent the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king. And so Jesse lined up all of his sons, all of these tall, strong, impressive looking sons. And Samuel, like many of us, I'm sure, thought this must be the one.
But God rejected each brother one by one. And this is what he said. said the Lord does not look at the things people look at people look at the outward appearance But the Lord looks at what the Lord looks at the heart So finally Samuel says to Jesse are there any more brothers and Jesse says well actually There is David But surely you don't mean him.
He's the youngest. He's actually out in the field. He's just tending the sheep. He wasn't even considered to be even bought out for the lineup to be considered. He was young, you know, he didn't look like a king, but God saw his heart and in a culture that valued, uh, stature and strength and status. God was showing that He actually values what's on the inside, not what the world sees.
And this story is actually a recurring theme throughout the movie Wonder. It's not what is on the outside that equals wonderful. There really is truth to the saying that beauty comes from within. And we see this play out in the movie time and time again. I've got a picture here of Julian and Auggie. So Julian, he is one of Auggie's main tormentors and bullies throughout the movie.
He has money, he has status, he has popularity, he's a trust fund kid. But he is downright violent. And then there's Augie. Time and time again we see true beauty in him, in his ability to move hearts, in his ability to offer forgiveness, to hand out, you know, stretch out his hand in friendship. He shares joy and laughter and he shows kindness and hope.
His heart radiates a beauty that quite literally throughout the entire movie changes people's lives. Jesus taught that what truly matters is what is on the inside, our inner attitude, not just our outward actions. And in the Beatitudes, which is a famous part of what we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount, uh, Jesus said this line that just, I just love, he said, blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Our goal as followers of Jesus is not to impress others with our actions, with how we act, with how we look, with what we have, it's actually to reflect the goodness and the kindness and the faithfulness and the joy and the hope and the love of our God, Jesus challenges us in all of our interactions, in all of our decisions to ask, you know, what is the motive of my heart here?
Am I following the Holy Spirit's lead on this? Am I surrendering myself to His way, my will to His way? You know, am I, am I demonstrating my love for God as I, as I reach out and love others in this moment? Or am I just trying to keep up appearances and thinking about myself? When we allow God to transform our hearts and we live by the power of His Holy Spirit, His love, is reflected through us, and that is beautiful.
That's the kind of beauty that matters, not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside. There's a powerful moment in wonder, and this is one of the tear jerking moments that you will definitely cry in, where Augie is having a conversation with his mum. His mum's encouraging him after an incredibly hard day at school and he's sitting on his bed with his helmet on and he is weeping.
And his mum comes in and he says, and she says, take the helmet off, please, Augie. And with tears streaming down his face, he says, why do I have to be so ugly? And his mum replies, you are not ugly. Ugly, Augie. And he says to her, you have to say that because you're my mum. And this is the powerful line. His mum responds, because I'm your mum, it counts the most because I know you.
The most. And this scene to me so beautifully just reflects how God sees and loves us. He sees us. He knows us the most. And he says to each and every one of us, you are fearfully and you are wonderfully made. Psalm 139, David at this stage, he's now the king that we just talked about. Not only was he a king, but he was a poet and he was a songwriter and he recorded so many of his writings.
And one of them in Psalm 139 says, for you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you. Why? Because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. God, our creator, our heavenly father, knows everything. every part of us. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, our hopes and our fears.
We are made in his image. And he says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And he declares that. And when he declares that, that gives you a confidence in a world which judges everything on the outward appearance. Maybe someone needs to hear that today. You are fearfully and you are wonderfully made.
And if you are struggling with your self esteem or the way that you look, and yes, I hated my mop head curls as a kid growing up, but maybe it's not even just the way you look. Maybe it's this feeling that you have where you're annoyed at the fact that you are not more outgoing or you're not smarter.
What, whatever lie it is that you're telling yourself, remember what God says. He's the one that knows you best. Don't listen to Hollywood. Don't listen to culture. Don't listen to what anyone else has to say. Listen to the one who loves you and knows you most. You look like your heavenly father. You are fearfully and you are wonderfully made and his, we, the more, you know, across our lifetime as we continue to surrender our lives.
To him. And the Holy Spirit does his work within us. We can, we start to look even more like him as we reflect his love. So take courage and go counter culture and listen to the one who knows you best. He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. And we see this truth reinforced through Jesus himself, don't we?
I mean, the ultimate demonstration of love was found in God sending his son. To us. Um, there's a scripture and whether you have ever picked up a Bible and read it or not, I think that you would know this verse that says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
You know, the same God that intricately formed you in the womb, he sent his son to redeem you. And so, just as David, back in that psalm, praised God for being fearfully and wonderfully made, we too can praise Him because His love didn't stop at creation. His love went all of the way to the cross. Paul, someone that you may be familiar with, he had a radical encounter with God.
He completely changed from being someone that persecuted Christians to someone who surrendered his life to God and then went on to live serving Jesus. He echoes this thought in a letter that he wrote to the church in Ephesus back then. And he said this to them, he says, for we are God's handiwork. Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So we are not just masterpieces. We are not just his handiwork, you know, fearfully and wonderfully made, but we're made with a purpose. And so led by the spirit, our purpose is to be a disciple of Jesus who makes disciples, to share and to live out his love and his goodness and his faithfulness to the world around us intentionally.
Every single day reflecting his love, loving reflect, um, loving our neighbors and living mission really is what it all boils down to living mission as we live a spirit, a spirit led life. And this morning, I just want to suggest that perhaps one of the easiest ways to reflect his love is just by being kind by showing kindness.
Augie's teacher in the film is, his name is Mr. Brown. And actually, as I watched it, I, I was thinking about a bunch of you that are teachers and are involved in schools in so many different ways because of the way that you live. You give so much of yourselves to teach and to model a generation of young people.
And I think that that's beautiful. And Mr. Brown reminded me of some of the people in our community here. And so on the first day of school, he decides to teach the kids about these things that he calls. Precepts, which he says, if you follow these precepts, they're going to help guide you to live the kind of life that you want to live.
And so the very first precept, precept that he gives his kids is that when given the choice between being right and being kind. And as the story unfolds, we see that this is actually the core message of the film. And I think it actually reflects how Jesus has asked us to live as well. And in the midst of a playground full of sniggering kids and bullying and just stares, Augie feels completely ostracized by the entire school community.
But then a couple of kids decide. And it completely changes the trajectory of his life. One of those students was Summer, and she actually leaves the cool kids table, and she walks across the lunchroom, and she sits beside Augie, and there's a picture of her here, and she is brave enough to say, to do something different than her friends.
And when Augie jokingly asks if she's going to catch the plague now, because he's, you know, she's actually touched him, she just smiles and she says to him, well, I don't care. Summer's act of kindness cost her. It cost her socially, but it made all the difference to a young boy who just wanted a friend and choosing kindness, even in our world today, often comes at a cost.
It requires bravery, especially in a world that is filled with apathy and entitlement and selfishness. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to live differently, aren't we? To live counter cultural, to love and to serve others, even when it's hard, even when it's outside of our own comfort, you know, to love our neighbor, even when it's not easy and certainly not convenient.
When asked, who is my neighbor? Jesus gave the most beautiful story that many of you would be familiar with about the Good Samaritan. So many people walked straight past this man that was hurting, lying in the ditch. But the Good Samaritan lent in. He did something. He was moved by compassion. He didn't step over the man.
He didn't walk around him. He lent in. And his kindness cost him something. It cost him time and it cost him money. But Jesus uses his example of what compassion and loving our neighbor looks like for us today. Jesus teaches us that we need to love our neighbors, those on our path, choosing kindness and compassion, even when it's inconvenient and even when it's difficult.
You know, the movie Wonder actually reflects how often we can lack empathy and we can quickly judge others without knowing their full story. Everyone has a story. And until we take the time to engage with that person, like the Good Samaritan, instead of stepping over people or stepping around them, until that moment.
We can very easily make snap judgments or lean into our own biases, our own prejudices, can't we? It's kind of hard to hear, but it's true. And too often we assume that we know someone's situation. Just like the kids at Augie School said, you know, you're going to catch the plague if you touch him. I recently read the story of a man who was at a bus stop, um, there were a couple of kids that were misbehaving behind him and he was just sitting there quietly staring into space while the kids were running from him.
Riot. And this observer who told the story said that he began to judge this man saying like what a terrible parent he was to the point where he actually spoke up. And he said to this guy, mate, you need to control your kids. And this man said, um, I'm so sorry. I'm a social worker. I've just left the hospital where he's where both of their parents have died.
And I'm just trying to figure out a way that I'm going to tell that to these two kids. We don't know the hard battles that people are fighting. We don't know. The people that we are passing on the rhythms and the routines of our lives are fighting hard battles. The people in this room this morning, when you look across at different people, are fighting hard battles.
People online as well. You know, there are unseen burdens. that people are carrying. There are questions that people are wrestling with. There are prayers that seemingly seem to be going unanswered. And there are people that are believing for breakthrough across a whole range of things. We don't know what someone's story is.
And if we would just take the time to lean in and to engage. Instead of making a snap, um, judgment call, we could then be a people that show compassion and kindness and lift one another up and support one another and pray for one another. And I see that done so beautifully in our church community. And can you imagine what the community outside would look like if we did that there as well?
It would be beautiful. Loving our neighbor, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you. Now in wonder, Augie makes a beautiful friend. His name is Jack and they are the best of friends and it is beautiful, beautiful to watch it unfold. But in a moment of weakness, Jack, when he was trying to just blend in and be like the cool kids, he says something that just devastates Augie.
It hurts him and wounds him to his core. And When Jack realized what he had done and how he had wounded his friend, he went to him and he apologized and he asked for forgiveness. No, I don't know. Admitting when you're wrong can be hard and forgiving is hard. They're both hard. Both require humility. Both require the work of the Holy Spirit within us, but it's worth it.
And God can redeem and God can restore what seems like it might be broken. Forgiveness, empathy, compassion, These are the qualities that grow in us as we surrender more and more to the work of the Holy Spirit within us. We must choose kindness if we are to reflect the love of Christ in our world. As Paul writes, he says, Clothe yourselves with compassion, with kindness, humility and gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other, he says, and forgive one another. And over all of these virtues, Put on love, which binds them together in perfect harmony, in perfect unity. This sums up the movie Wonder for me. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness. Love, that is our God, and that is His beauty, and that is the beauty that gets to flow through us to others as we continue to surrender to Him and be transformed into His image.
And you know what? It points other people to Jesus, because it's irresistible. Some years ago, there was a journalist and his name was Daniel Burke, and he wrote a piece about watching the Pope, Pope Francis, um, embrace a disfigured man. This man was completely covered from head to toe with like growths and itchy sores.
I've got a picture here for you. And to his surprise, this journalist, Daniel, who was not a Christ follower, said that tears welled up in his eyes as he watched this moment. And he said, I'm not a hugger, but in this moment, I felt like I just wanted to hug everybody around me. And he said, that's a really odd reaction for me.
And he wondered why it was that a simple act of kindness between two strangers had moved him so deeply. And so he went away and he did some research and he discovered a concept called elevation. And elevation is an emotional response to witnessing an act of compassion. And it results in a feeling of warmth and hope and a desire to participate.
In the past, this emotion that we now called elevation was called moral beauty. Isn't that beautiful? Moral beauty. Moral beauty, I believe is the greatest form of beauty that there is. It's the love of God flowing through us as we share his love and compassion with others. It moves us and it draws us in.
It has a ripple effect. And in the movie, the ripple effect of that moral beauty of kindness, it actually eventually reaches some of Auggie's worst bullies. And there's a scene at the very end of the movie, and if, well, just have the tissues ready. Let me tell you, the tears will flow because they will.
Three of Auggie's classmates who honestly used to bully him and had treated him so badly across the school year are inspired and transformed because they're witnessing moments like this throughout the year. And so they're all at school camp and they actually witness some older boys head out into the woods, uh, following Augie and Jack and they decide in that moment that they're going to go and follow because they think that something bad is going to happen.
And sure enough, these older bullies, um, have found Jack and Augie and they are ready to beat them up. And these former bullies of Augie's, they now stand up for him and they fight back against the bullies. And it's this beautiful moment. And for the very first time, they speak directly to Augie, not to him.
Words that pull down, but words that encourage and lift him up. And for the very first time, they reach out and they touch him. They give him a high five. They wrap their arms around him and. There's a beautiful picture at the end and that to me just, that is moral beauty right there. That is, that is kindness and that kind of kindness and beauty really can transform lives.
When I began this morning, I asked you a question that I think this film poses, where do we find the courage to live out the beauty of kindness? It's the wrong question. It's not about where. It's about Jesus. He is the embodiment of beauty and kindness and love. He loved the world so much that he became man and he went to the cross for us.
God entered the ugliness of my sin willingly. He didn't step over us. He didn't step around us. He entered in. In the greatest show of love we could ever experience. And he didn't just stop there. He rose again and he conquered death and he conquered sin so that we might know true love and compassion and kindness and forgiveness and joy and life.
He is our example, not just our example, but he's also our strength in how to live out kindness. It's in his power that we find the courage to do it. His love for us is a wonder. And when we catch a glimpse, just a glimpse of his love that is higher and deeper and wider than you could ever imagine, then we, there's no other response than to offer our lives completely to him and to share his love with the world around us.
The more we abide in Jesus, the more that we can love others because His love fills us and flows through us. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we can choose kindness and we can see a difference in the world that we live in. I wondered if the Musos could join me again as we wrap up. I said at the beginning that often the book is better than the movie, and there's an excerpt at the end of the book that didn't actually make it in its fullness into the movie.
Mr. Tushman is the school principal, and at the graduation ceremony for these students, he's giving them an address. And he says to them that the true measure of growth across their year is not measured in inches and it's not measured in the grades or the marks or the results that they got, but instead it's measured in how they spent their time, how they've treated one another and how they have been kind.
And he says this to them, if wherever you are, whenever you can, you can try to act a little kinder than necessary than the world really would be a better place. And if you can do this, someone else may recognize the face of God in you. If we could just be a little kinder than necessary, can you imagine a world like that?
Can you imagine a community, a city, a home like that, where everyone just chose to act a little kinder than necessary? As followers of Jesus, our actions and our words reveal God's loving kindness to the people around us. Less of us. More of him as we're conformed into his image, clothing ourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with each other, forgiving one another and over all of these virtues, putting on love.
So my challenge for you today is a simple one. Choose kind, choose to be a little kinder than necessary in every relationship, in every interaction with the people that God has placed on your path. And I thought I would even just give you some really simple examples. They're going to sound so obvious, but let's do it anyway, because there's some really practical things that we can do in our daily lives.
The first one is to lead by example. You know, to be like Summer, Augie's friend, that did something different to the rest of her school friends. She acted differently. She showed kindness. Go counterculture. Don't just do what everyone else is doing. Be kinder than necessary. Practice empathy. Instead of making a judgment call about somebody, choose to lean in, to be curious, to ask them a question.
Consider somebody's story. Don't judge, just show compassion. Maybe for you it might be something as simple as creating a kindness routine. I have some friends who have a generosity account that they've set up so that they put money into so that when God moves on their heart, um, times when they, you know, want to give above and beyond their regular systematic giving, they've got funds there ready to do so.
Maybe it looks like serving or just when you notice something or you think something about someone, speak the words. They need to hear them. Resolve conflicts with kindness. This one is really important, particularly for people who've grown up, perhaps not seeing conflict, um, handled well or modeled well in their lives.
And so you can handle conflict with kindness. You can listen. You can express your feelings, but you can seek understanding and seek clarification. You can choose to always believe the best in the other person. And you can seek peace. And lastly, you can cultivate the skill of noticing. This is a big one.
We are so busy, all of us, all the time. And sometimes you can go a whole day and all you've thought about is your own concerns. But if we could be a people that start to cultivate what it looks like to notice others, notice how other people are feeling. What are they experiencing? You know, I think this one is so important, particularly for parents.
Like, we are raising a generation of kids that are getting really good at articulating and identifying their own feelings. And that's good. That's healthy. But let's also ensure that we're raising a generation of kids that can notice other people's feelings and other people's experiences as well.
Philippians 2 verses 3 to 4 says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of us should look not to our own interests but to the interests of others. May we through the power of the Holy Spirit choose to live out the beauty of kindness and the love of our God to the world around us.
Every single person is made in the image of God. So let's treat them with the honor and the respect and the love that they deserve. Choose kind. Simply ask, what does love require of me? in this moment and act on that. And so as we close this morning, the team are going to lead us, um, in a song and I just want to take though a few minutes and ask you to examine your own heart.
And I wonder if even now the Holy Spirit might drop a name into your thinking of somebody in your world that just needs a little bit of kindness. Maybe you could be the one to share it with them. Maybe it's not a person so much as an ugly situation, a prickly scenario that you've got going on and their healing balm of forgiveness is needed in that scenario.
You could be the one to extend forgiveness or perhaps the one to, you know, admit that you were wrong and, and ask for, tell them that you're sorry. Maybe it's you. You know, life is. And we need the grace of God every single day. But you also need to give grace to yourself, forgive yourself, be kind to yourself.
Let's ask that the Holy Spirit truly would clothe us in compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness as we share His love with the world so that we could respond always asking what does love require and pointing people to Jesus so that they might see the face of God as we extend kindness to them.
Would you pray with me? Thank you Lord for who you are, and thank you for your love, your loving kindness, your mercy for each and every one of us. And God, I pray that as your people we would choose to live your kindness out each and every day. In our families, beginning right in our homes, and then out to our schools and our workplaces and our communities.
Help us. At all times, Jesus, to ask, What does love require of me? And may we, just in our intentionality, be reflections of your love and your kindness to the world around us. I pray that others might see you. In our acts of love. I pray for the courage to act even today, Holy Spirit, on the thoughts that you've planted into our minds and that you've whispered to us.
And I thank you, God, that we don't have to do this, any of it, in our own strength, but we get to lean into the power of the Holy Spirit as we live mission each and every day. We thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen.