Never Take Kindness as a Barter or an Endless Give-And-Take Process

Kindness as A Barter

True kindness doesn’t expect to be reciprocated. Kindness is defined as the tendency of being forgiving or the "quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic." Therefore, a form of kindness that's expecting a reward or a reciprocal attitude from whom one's kindness was tendered is deceptive and manipulative. For kindness is to be nice to others, free of any ulterior motives at all--no strings attached. Someone has well said that: "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

A Kindness Given in Exchange for Personal Reward, Advantage and Gratification

There's a story in the Bible where a certain woman built a room for Prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-17). Pleased, Elisha prayed that the notable but childless Shunammite woman would bear a son. Using this illustration, one preacher ventured to say that: one's kindness will always be rewarded. He also added that a glass of cold water given in kindness will receive a reward, quoting Matthew 10:40-42:

"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." (Matthew 10:40-42)

Now, who would dare to disagree with the above verses which fell from the lips of Christ Himself? Well, Jesus Christ is the Truth. (John 14:6). No one can twist the Biblical truth that "God is not mocked; a man reaps what he sows"! Outside of Christ or the Christian faith for that matter however, the virtue of kindness or being nice to people, is usually applied differently. We normally are nice only if we have a personal interest on the recipient or the results of our kindness. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" seems to be the norm in our relationships!

Be Kind Without Expecting Any Form of Reward

Charles H. Spurgeon once said: "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." I think Spurgeon is right: we need to be kind without expecting any form of reward, for the truest reward or payment of our kindness is the happy remembrance of our good character by the people affected by our benignity.

Christian Kindness Toward Christian Leaders

Biblically, however, I do personally believe that one's kindness given to the real leaders and the true Christian Church as well will always receive a reward from the Lord, either physically, spiritually, or even financially or all three divine blessings at once. Jesus Christ taught it; I experienced it: I experienced where all that I had was burned (my computer, books, everything) to ashes! But my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior was strong as ever despite my severe trials; I knew that He loved me and bled and died for my sins. (Now I have a laptop already for me to be able to share with you my story so easily). "Delight thyself also in the LORD"; yes, amidst the storms of trials, "and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Psalm 37:4.

Kindness Attracts Kindness

Kindness, outside of the Christian paradigm, has another meaning. We are living in this "me-first" world, and being kind the way Christ was while He was still walking on this planet over 2,000 years ago, has now become a strange phenomenon to the majority. For we understand kindness today to be always connected to our personal interest. The politicians, in particular, have coined this important description of their so-called kindness (not all of them, though!): "There's no such thing as permanent friendship, only permanent interest."

A certain public speaker started his speech by saying: "When God created the universe He created universal laws and one of these laws is the law of attraction." Well said. Kindness attracts kindness, in short. The Bible is full of instructions about patience and kindness, which are relevant even to this Bible-less generation of ours.

God’s Kindness Attracts Repentance

After all, the kindness of God will lead people to repent, wrote the Apostle Paul. Or, that the kindness of a mother will lead a wicked daughter to change ways. Here's how Paul said it:

"So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" ( Romans 2:3-4 )

CONLUSION

Let's go now to the bottom line of it all: there are really people who are naturally kind to others, they be Christians or not, some of their names are even in the Guinness Book. They are so few, though. Would you include Mahatma Gandhi or Buddha or Mother Teresa in your list of truly kind people? Or, do you believe they did what they did, yes, to thousands of people, without expecting any personal gratification in the process? You have your answer, of course.

Quotes

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. - Dalai Lama

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. - Jesus Christ (Luke 6:35)

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The Tainted Reputation of the Philippine Senate vs the Filing of the Enrile, Bong and Jinggoy Plunder Case

The Tainted Reputation of the Philippine Senate

The tainted reputation of the Philippine Senate is so serious an issue as to require a major political surgery. The filing of the appropriate and non-bailable plunder case against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., although a good sign of relief on the part of the Filipino people, is not enough remedy to assuage the insult and abuse that our masses have felt with the uncovering of the Napoles pork-barrel scam. We are poor--our government is poor. And corruption in government is the main cause of it all. For even our highest lawmakers have themselves turned into law-breakers. They have become so corrupt that they couldn’t feel any qualm of conscience at all. Instead, they are telling the country of their planned candidacy for the coming elections. Adding insult to injury, they are even so confident that they can deceive the Filipino electorates—once more!

This case of plunder filed against Senators Enrile, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada is unprecedented in the history of the Philippine Senate. And it is just the tip of the iceberg. If proven in court, the Philippine government can be likened to a human body having cancer and other serious infections right in the head--in the brain.

Thus, the tainted reputation of the Philippine Senate is so serious that it requires some form of cleansing or political surgery if you may. It is indeed good news that some of our Senators are proposing a form of disciplinary action like expulsion from office of erring comrades. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, chaired by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, had also recommended the filing of plunder charges against Enrile, Bong and Jinggoy. But it is not enough. There must be a law that will bar a plunder-convicted politician from seeking a political office. The case of ex-President and now Mayor Erap Estrada who was convicted with plunder is a vivid portrayal on how our law on plunder can become toothless versus the mandate of our non-issues-oriented and less-schooled majority.

The law on plunder was one of the best laws ever conceived and written by our leaders. What we need in this country is more brave leaders like Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and a President like Noynoy Aquino who have deep respect for the law.

The best remedy in order to right the tainted reputation of the Philippine Senate is the Senate itself, the political will of our government to guard our people’s money and to jail corrupt politicians, and most importantly, we the Filipinos during election day.

We have a comment portion below if you have something to say about this post.

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The Strength and Weakness of Filipino Culture and Tradition

The Strength and Weaknesses of Filipino Culture and Tradition

Like all other nations on earth, our culture or way of life as a people has both strength and weaknesses. Culture, says the dictrionary is "the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively...The tastes in art and manners that are favoured by a social group...All the knowledge and values shared by a society."

Tradition on the other hand, is "the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way." Culture and tradition thus is a way of life, the practices of our people during a burial rite, a wedding ceremony or the way we view and see things in life.

The Chinese people are governed by Feng Shui in their construction of buildings, for example, or in starting a business. It is a "Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing the human existence with the surrounding environment. The term feng shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English."

Our counterpart to Feng Shui in the Philippines is the belief in the involvement of the spirits of our ancestors in our daily life. All these practices and belief system are handed down to us by culture and tradition, which is the transmitted knowledge, customs, belief and values from generation to generation.

The Strength of Filipino Culture

Why is it that there are many retired foreigners, particularly Americans, who want to live and die in the Philippines? It is because we value close family ties. Call it as emotionalism or sentimentalism, but we simply love to see our children and grand children, even our in-laws, to live harmoniously with us under the same roof as much as possible--finances permitting, so to say.

The Americans on the other hand, believe in rugged individualism such as independence at age 18, or even divorce between couples. The result is that their elderly and grand parents found themselves without a family to call their own at the end of their life journey. We are not like them. That's why many of them came over to our shores, for they appreciate our culture of safeguarding and giving great value on our close family relationship.

We have other practices that are worth emulating. But space limits us to mention them all here.

The Weaknesses of Filipino Culture

The weaknesses of Filipino culture seem to out weigh its strength. For example, our culture of corruption in this country can be traceable back to our close family ties and sense of dependence on our elderly. As such, we have a sense of dependence on our political leaders and boss--our political "father," so to say.

Our nation's Catholic religion is also a factor or cause why do we trust more on connections and bribery, the main elements in all forms of corrupt practices. For example, we want some connections with our patron-Saints such as San Isidro Labrador or San Lorenzo Ruiz. We want a connection to Mother Mary, for her to somehow "influence" Christ.

The strength and weaknesses of our culture and tradition cannot be contained in just a book or two, so much that we seem to embrace also the culture, both the negative and the positives ones, of other nations.

Conclusion

In sum, I should say that it takes dozens of years yet to inculcate effectively into the minds of our people what is good and what is not to our country and nation. The recent pork barrel scam in the Philippines and the involvement of our brilliant leaders, including some highly respected media men who are enjoying national prominence, is one proof that great knowledge alone from great schools of learning is not enough to make a great Filipino leader corruption-proof.

I like this quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It's good for all our corrupt Senators and Congressmen: “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not Guilty'.”

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