we, in pursuit of self-control come face to face with our human nature, in all its bushy beauty and challenge. As humans, we seem to have endless propensity for shame and guilt, to perceive ourselves as failing over and over and over again, flailing in our morose of never being enough. I follow the pathetic little ritual of compromising myself, with food or sexuality, resentment, anger, prejudice. The inability to control oneself, by oneself, shows up in commonly experienced arenas: our thoughts and our tongues – our words about ourselves and others, substance use and abuse, lust, anger, how we do or don’t use our time or our phones, guilt of whether we’re being good, peace-filled, productive Mennonites

A limited gentleness—limited to some and certain bodies—stifles a shared, mutual understanding of what gentleness is and who might embody it. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. A gentleness for all bodies, all communities and desperately needed within, among and beyond us all today.

So when we think about faithfulness, we ought to consider where we place our trust and with whom we walk this journey. Faithfulness cannot be reduced just to loyalty, as if our faith is merely in this or that congregation or the Mennonite Church as a whole. But when our churches and our denominations are at their best, they are about bringing people together to discern what it means to be faithful here and now, what it means to trust the Spirit of God who continues to grow fruit in us and anoint us for the work of the kin-dom. 

As we cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, we become more like Jesus, and Jesus was never cruel, but he was clear. Kindness is clear about what is worth holding on to and what needs to be released. Kindness is about understanding which burdens are worth bearing and which need to be cast aside because they only serve to drive ourselves or others into the ground.