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(From the preface to 'In Pursuit of Kindness,' which is now available at , , or through .

I am not naturally a kind person. I am tempted constantly and consistently to cynicism. In fact, when I walked myself through the doors of a church, I had spent the previous night watching Saturday Night Live and listening to the eminently misanthropic joke punk band The Dead Milkmen. One of my favorite songs was ‘If You Love Someone Set Them on Fire.� And that was pretty much my take on kindness when I first showed up at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Spokane. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, has led me like a rail-riding hobo in pursuit of kindness. I was suspicious of any kindness, convinced that there always had to be a self-serving agenda. But God has been patient with me because, quite frankly, he is kind. 
And, for me, this has probably been the most surprising thing about God. I did not expect it. I was not looking for a kind God. It had never occurred to me that kindness was particularly important. It never seemed like the something that would be attached to divinity. 
I was convinced that the truth about life, God, and the world would be like medicine. It would taste bad but be good for you. And any sweetness was, at best, an illusion, and at worst a downright lie.

But I kept running up against the fact that, in the history of God’s people, the lovingkindness of God has been the defining feature of our story. I found myself to have been grafted into a history wherein God was surprisingly kind. At least it was surprising to me. This book is me coming to terms with God’s kindness, what it means to follow a kind God, and what it means to be in pursuit of kindness.

From the Preface to 'In Pursuit of Kindness. To read more, check out the book .