I’m a big basketball fan, and there are few things I enjoy watching more than a good pointguard. For those of you who aren’t familiar with basketball, the pointguard operates as the floor general for the team. A good pointguard is always dribbling into the middle, dribbling back out, actively looking to pass the ball to the open man, actively looking to set up a scoring play. Good point guards are aggressive, always probing the defense, always looking to dump the ball off to a man under the basket. The best point guards, like Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook are always on the move, always active.

Kindness is like a good pointguard. In his book Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Phil Ryken says:

To be kind is to be “warm, generous, thoughtful, helpful.” To show that such kindness is a verb, Gordon Fee defines it as “active goodness on behalf of others.” Other commentators describe a kind person as someone who is “disposed to be useful” and “freely to do good to others”—definitions that emphasize the readiness and eagerness of kindness to engage in the service of others. Lewis Smedes calls kindness “love’s readiness to enhance the life of another person.”

Being kind is actively for opportunities to do good on behalf of others. Being kind is having an eagerness and readiness to enhance someone else’s life. Being kind is the opposite of being self-centered. Lord make me kind!