Perspectives | Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Course of Kindness

Editorial by Terry Forde

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”– Aesop

Have you ever thought about where the word kind came from? It is a very old word that we’ve been using in some form or another for more than a thousand years.

The root word is kin, which means family, as in kindred, or my kinfolk, or just my kin. To be family was to be kinned, and over the centuries it was contracted to kind.

So kindness literally means “like family.” In practical terms, it means to regard all of humankind as belonging to one great family, one great kinship – and to treat one another accordingly.

Year of the Bible: Joy

Have you ever noticed how elusive joy can be? ... Joy comes and goes for no apparent reason, but the joy God wants to give us can't be taken away.

Over the past few years, I have been going on an identity journey. This journey has been revelatory in many ways. Very little is known about my origins and beginning. I know I was born in Korea and was in an orphanage in Incheon by the time I was 21 months old. There isn’t a trace of who my birth parents are, but a couple who hailed from the giant state of Texas came into the picture who wanted children but found it impossible to build a family traditionally.

Perspectives: I Would Be True

Editorial by Terry Forde

The senseless death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday night gives rise to emotions that are primal and powerful. Anger. Fear. Disappointment. Rage. Sadness. Helplessness. And we experience all of these emotions at once, as collectively we try to grapple with yet another example of injustice and violation of the most basic and fundamental human right: life itself.

One can acknowledge the role of law enforcement and also condemn behavior that flaunts and dishonors the foundational values of our society. I am outraged by what I saw on the video, and also by what has happened since. We must find a way to stop the violence and the abuse.

Perspectives: One Day at a Time

Perspective by Pastor Will Johns

How do you make summer plans right now? It is very difficult to plan anything because so much is unknown about what restrictions will or will not still be in place. And so we must deal with the loss of future expectation. I don't know about you, but I like having things to look forward to. I love it when I have some family vacations scheduled on the calendar. I have had to cancel two trips for this summer already and that is disappointing. I'm sure most of you are in a similar situation. So how do we respond?