Fighting for yourself and your kind will wither you away until you are nothing but bitterness. We are all relying on each other to get through the years and when you start to push people away in preservation of your pride you lose the support system that keeps you standing straight. We all want the same things for ourselves essentially: we want happiness, we want our dreams to come true, whatever they may be, we all want to lie in a comfy bed at the end of the longest, hardest days. We all want a better world for our children or our grandchildren and their children too. We all realize that society is total chaos, we realize that our politicians only argue meaninglessly and ferociously and so so harshly. We realize that our world is a tornado heading straight towards each of us and some of us will not make it out whole from that terror. We see these things, and if you think that you do not, are there roads you are afraid to drive down? People you are afraid to approach on the street? Do you give money or food to homeless people? Do you hold the door open at gas stations? Do you smile at strangers with tear stained faces?

You see, our society has taught us to be afraid. Our society has invented selfie sticks, so not only do you not have to interact with strangers at major events to ask them to take your picture, but you can portray yourself however you want now, alone in your room or with your friends. You’re taking all of the pictures, calling all the shots. You are always only presenting your best self to the world— not the person you are truly, but the person you know everyone or even just yourself wants you to be. No one is as perfect as they seem on instagram: social media is just the highlight reel that helps boost our confidence while dry our own tears and bite our lips from saying the things that really matter. And I am the guiltiest of this.

This world that we live in that supports blocking others out with walls and words and physical means, has tricked us into believing that we must fight for ourselves against people who are also fighting for themselves, leaving no middle ground with nothing in common pointing fingers or guns at people who on the outside look nothing like us. It isn’t true and it isn’t fair and it is most certainly the least kind thing there is.

I remember in Sunday school how we were drilled to not judge others, and that is golden, that idea is pure gold, but it is lacking, it is not present in the world that I see today. You judge others when you drive past them in the parking lot and complain about things you assume are true, when you have no idea if they are or not. You judge others when you comment on the color of their hair or their clothing, I do it, you do it, we all do it. You judge others when you decide that someone is a threat to you before you have even met them, before you’ve looked them in they eyes or heard what they have to say. You judge others when you support the building of a wall: that very action is a condemnation on a multitude of strangers hungry, starving for the freedom you cling to so tightly that you’ve lost site of its purpose.

Refugees and immigrants are not just people coming here for help. They have gifts, talents, ideas, knowledge to offer and we often lose sight of the benefits they bring in exchange for grudgingly holding out our hands offering the littlest we can and complaining that they’re taking everything we have.

Go look at a refugee community. Go look at the housing they have— left over apartment buildings that no one else wanted, that are now run down or half burnt down and we tell people to live in them. We tell Kings and Queens and Princes and Princesses of the family of God to live in a hellhole we deem fit for them.

Ask yourself if you want that for yourself or your children or your friends. And then ask yourself again how, if we’re supposed to love like Jesus does, you’re letting those people live like that. Why are there people in desperate poverty? Why are there children starving to death blocks or minutes or hours from your neighborhood?

Love your neighbor like yourself. Kindness is not as hard as we make it seem, I promise. A smile, a laugh, a hug, a hand squeeze— think of what you needed on your darkest days and hand whatever that is out like candy on Halloween. Just because someone didn't do that for you when you needed it doesn't give you an excuse to not be kind to someone else.

Kindness overlooks the inconveniences that being kind poses.

Kindness is what keeps us going on really bad days.

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"When autumn darkness falls, what we will remember are the small acts of kindness: a cake, a hug, an invitation to talk, and every single rose. These are the expressions of a nation coming together and caring about its people." -Jens Stoltenburg