After several weeks of being in the hospital, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had been plagued with several health conditions, but the cancer would prove to be the most serious. After the surgeon tried to remove the cancer, he informed us it had spread to other parts of her body. What appeared to be a routine recovery led to almost a week in intensive care and when she was finally able to receive chemotherapy she was so weak, and the cancer was taking its toll.
For almost two months I would spend at least one or two days a week in Orlando with my parents. My sister Sarah was a great care giver during that time and she was able to spend longer periods of time.
Even in the almost 40 years since her surgery, there have been so many advancements in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this no one will be dying from it.
She, however, would die on Wednesday June 18, 1985. We had a memorial service for her in Orlando, then a graveside service for her in Jacksonville on Friday. Saturday morning, I was exhausted. I was also mourning her death and getting up to face the day was not happening very quickly. The window in our bedroom was filled with late morning light and the sound of Saturday lawn mowing could be heard as I rolled over again and tried to ignore the reality of morning.
Outside our window, I could hear our neighbor mowing his lawn. It was getting harder to ignore the sound, because our lawn hadn’t been mowed for two weeks and I was dreading the task. Mourning creates denial. I was doing my best to delay coming back to my normal routine and was not looking forward to mowing our grass. It was the time of year grass really needs to be cut about every 5 days and mowing our two-week growth drove me into deeper mourning.
As I listened to the symphony of mowers, blowers and trimmers I realized the sounds were really close to my house. For a while I just ignored the sounds and let them lull me back to sleep. When I finally woke up, I looked out our bedroom window and realized our lawn had been mowed. I went to our front door and as I opened it. I saw a truck pulling a trailer of yard maintenance equipment driving away. It didn’t take long to recognize it!
Justin Landers was an enterprising teenager. He started a lawn mowing business even before he could drive, and he had built it up quite well. We had known Justin since he was in early middle school after his family joined Lakewood United Methodist Church. He was active in the youth group and sometimes he seemed to prefer hanging out with the adult counselors even more than his peers. He was a helper. After events, he often would hang around when others had left and would help with clean up and set up for the next event. In some ways, I wasn’t surprised Justin had showed up on this Saturday morning and gave our lawn an overdue haircut! It’s the kind of person he is. Even today, the remembrance of his Random Act of Kindness warms my heart and makes me glad to have a friend like Justin Landers!
On Sunday morning, my main objective was to find Justin and to let him know how much I appreciated his act of kindness. It is currently popular to refer to this as a Random Act of Kindness. Though it is a catchy phrase, Justin’s action was not random. It was intentional! I think the use of the term Random may not be totally accurate. Humans rarely act kind randomly. It is something we have to will ourselves to do. I do believe, there is the spark of the divine in each human capable of more kindness than we actually produce. Most of us need to exercise our kindness muscle a little more.
Maybe what people refer to as Random actually means Secret or Private.
Here’s what Jesus has to say.
““Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Matthew 6:1-4 NIV
Humanity needs more intentional acts of kindness done just because it’s how God made us to be! God’s plan for humanity was for kindness to happen naturally, I pray Jesus will be alive in your heart and you will live a life of Naturally Intentional Kindness.
Justin graduated from college and moved away from Jacksonville. Over the years, he returns to Jacksonville, and we see other. I look forward to seeing him again and letting him know I have shared this with you!
Thanks Justin!
Gee Sprague, September 08, 2022