eNews – Let’s Make Goodness Fashionable

As I thought about what to share with you in this month of giving thanks, I thought of the hymn, “When I Survey the Wonderful Cross.” I particularly love the chorus that Michael W. Smith sings.

Oh, the wonderful Cross
Oh, the wonderful Cross
Bids me, come and die,
and find that I may truly live

Oh, the wonderful Cross
Oh, the wonderful Cross
All who gather here by Grace
Draw near and bless Your Name

Daily, I become more aware of the importance of a Lighthouse in every town. Cities will need more than one group to reach the vast population. All around us creation is groaning, crying out for truth in a world filled with words that have been twisted to fit the narrative of a lost world.

I believe that our loving God thought ahead and planned for you and I to be filled with His Spirit and with words of Truth that will carry His Light to a grieving world. What we do today matters. How we speak matters. How we lead matters. How we stand matters. How we love matters. How we reach out matters. Be His hands and feet in your community. Look for those that others overlook.

I have a small book, Random Acts of Kindness. I love a few statements that are made. The book was written in 1993 and reprinted in 2002 right after 9/11. It opens with It is a tragedy that in 2002 the mention of tragedy has itself become commonplace. I feel this still holds true 23 years later in 2025. The book goes on to say,

In such a world kindness is not a frill; it is a spiritual necessity. Indeed, where we once might have thought of random acts of kindness as charming, delightful, or even amusing, we cannot but see them now as the moment-by-moment, day-by-day acts of love that pierce the night sky with millions of pinpoints of light…for what we know how, in the cells of our souls…..is that everything is claimed by either goodness or ungoodness……The practice of kindness is the daily, friendly, homely caring form of love……Kindness is love with hands and hearts and minds. It is both whimsical – causing our faces to crack into a smile—and deeply touching –causing our eyes to shimmer tears. And its miraculous nature is such that the more acts of kindness we offer, the more of them we have to give, for acts of kindness are always drawn from the endless well of love.

I remember Graham Cooke asking us one time, What if the only thing missing in our nation is the Goodness of God? Then he said, “Let’s make Goodness fashionable.” As we walk through November, the month of Thanksgiving into December, the month of Giving, let us carry the thought of making Goodness fashionable in all we do as we walk into 2026 and beyond. I believe God has positioned us both geographically and spiritually to make this an obtainable goal. God has given the ‘goods’ of the Gospel into our hands. May we do our part in bringing many souls to Christ in our communities.