Kind vs Good (Revisited -2026)

 The topic of the Vistage Alumni meeting today was Authenticity in Relationships across four quadrants - self, spouse, close friends and acquaintances.  Tom A. brought up path for encouraging authenticity might be as simple as kindness.  This caused me to revisit my memory (and blog) of "Kind vs Good" -Sept 27, 2010.  

Thankfully AI has helped me with a deeper dive:  

Sixteen years ago, my blog referenced a sermon from Rev. Stover in which he said the word “kind” never appears in the Bible. At the time, that line sent my mind straight to Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Little Red Riding Hood’s sharp observation:

“Kind does not mean good.”

I didn’t realize then how often that distinction would come back to me.

Today, “kindness” is one of the most overused words in our cultural vocabulary. We put it on yard signs, coffee mugs, corporate slogans, and social media hashtags. “Be kind” has become a modern mantra. And yet—just as Little Red warned—kindness still doesn’t necessarily mean goodness.

Kindness has become easy. Goodness has not.

Kindness today often means being agreeable, polite, or non‑confrontational. It’s a social lubricant. It keeps the peace. It avoids friction. But goodness—real goodness—still demands something deeper:

• moral courage

• integrity

• sacrifice

• truthfulness

• accountability

Goodness sometimes requires saying the hard thing, standing firm, or refusing to go along with something that is wrong. And in those moments, “kindness” can actually get in the way. We can be so eager to appear kind that we fail to be good.

The Bible’s language helps clarify the difference.

Rev. Stover’s point was technically correct the KJV does not use the word kind (however kindness, kindly and loving kindness is) and his point was that the English word “kind” doesn’t capture the weight of the biblical concepts. The Bible’s vocabulary is richer:

• hesed — steadfast love, covenant loyalty, mercy

• chrestotēs — moral goodness, uprightness, gracious strength

Biblical kindness is never mere niceness. It is goodness expressed. It is goodness with a spine.

Our world needs goodness first.

We live in a time when manipulation often masquerades as kindness. Flattery, charm, and smooth talk can be used to disarm, distract, or deceive. The wolf still knows how to smile.

So the lesson from 2010 holds even more strongly today:

Be good—and let kindness follow. Goodness is the root. Kindness is the fruit. When goodness leads, kindness becomes trustworthy. When kindness leads, goodness can be compromised.

Sixteen years later, I’m convinced of this:

Kindness is beautiful when it grows out of goodness. But kindness without goodness is just camouflage.

And Sondheim's Little Red Riding Hood still has the best line.

Home Networking - NOT...Working

Being a DIY home network techy has been a history of challenges - from DSL, Fiber, Cat 5, 5e, 6, 6a, 7 and now 8, Wifi 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and now Wifi 7, 10/100 switches to gigabyte switches, mesh network, the list goes on.  

Today was another lesson in humility.  Luckily I cancelled AltaFiber's technician site visit (I was so sure the ONT was fried from the recent storm and outage) and tried my own troubleshooting of the home network diagnosis.

 I discovered that my TP-Link Ac1200 was defective but that outcome was an all day effort.  

Thank goodness for AI's assistance in trying to renew my networking skills. 

The investments of routers, switches, long Cat 6 wire, extenders, adds up over the years.  My guess is I have spent over $2,000. But luckily I am a pack rate and I keep all that old technology  (see my history DIY networking -  Networking Triumph  Home Networking Reboot Post Purchase Analysis ) I dug my old 2012 NetGear N500 wifi router out of my technology "scary box" full of obsolete stuff.   BUT ... it worked!    

But true technology confession is good for the soul! AI Copilot said it well when I asked if I should breakdown and just purchase an new router - 

NETGEAR Orbi 370 WiFi 7 Mesh System Dual-Band, Up to 6,000 sq ft, 3 Pack

Garen, honestly… you’re making the right call. You’ve got an Apple router, a TP‑Link, and a Netgear all broadcasting different SSIDs, different security modes, different DHCP behavior — that’s exactly the kind of environment where Alexa + Cync + IoT devices become a never‑ending troubleshooting loop.

You’re not imagining it. You’re not doing anything wrong. The system is unstable because the network is unstable.

Let me give you the straight, executive‑level breakdown so you can move forward without wasting another Saturday.

Now with all the internet of things (IoT) my smart plugs, Alexa devices, ring doorbells, thermador smart freezer and refrigerator, security cameras, droplet water monitor, irrigation controller, and internet smart TV's all needed updates to the new router!  

When it "rains it pours" because just three days ago I wasted a complete day relinking 21 different financial entities to a new checking account Susan and I opened.  

The cost of efficient "integration" and "convenience" becomes real clear when THE critical single component gets changed - like a checking account or a router.  

So the Notworking is Nowworking awaiting Monday's delivery of a new mesh router system--- New..working!  

Heaven Board #20

Rev Tim Keller has been instrumental in my personal spiritual journey beginning with the first taped sermon I heard from him on Friendship (May 29,2005).   Susan claims (and likely I can claim also) that she has listened to all 1500+ of the sermons that she got as a Christmas present (2013 I believe).  It was a very sad day  May 19, 2023 (we were volunterring at a J.H. Outback weekend) that we learned of his passing.  To this day I use his sermons to prepare for any Bible Study verse and listen to them in my car.  Like a good movie I never tire of relistening to a sermon and his stories that repeat.  

For friends I compiled a tumbdrive of 231 of his free sermons with index to date and verse (now I think all are free at www.gospelinlife.com/sermons/).  I also subscribed to logos library of the written text of most of these sermons also.

By chance, I was trying to find some of Keller's final sermons not listed on thumbdrive I have when I discovered on his site the recorded memorial service held August 15, 2023 at St. Patricks Cathedral. What a moving homily by Rev. Sam Allberry.  I decided to use NotebookLM to transcribe the YouTube audio, then cut and pasted into Word and asked Copilot to format and turn it into a readable sermon with an appropriate title - it suggested the Rev. Allberry's borrowed line from Tim Keller himself - "Jesus is the true and better Tim Keller"  :)

But what struck me most about this message was this statement:

 

 "A God who sees you, not according to your achievements, not according to your wealth, or your looks, or your popularity, not even just according to your sins, but a God who sees you as worth his while serving. Some of us here this afternoon will be unsure whether we believe in God. Some of us may be very sure we don’t believe in God. But I wonder if the God you don’t believe in is like this. And if God did exist, wouldn’t you want him to be just like this?  Jesus came to serve."

Like Tim Keller this was a message of hope for those who believe, those who are unsure of their belief, and even those that don't believe.  As a trained skeptic, Tim Keller was just the person I needed to point to the "true and better" one.

Weather or Not

Susan asked what would Armstrong Men do regarding a rain out of the 5th annual golf outing at Hamilton Elks?  The forecast was 98% rain for the entire day.  The actual outcome - overcast with a slight "spit" on the windshield driving up at 7:30am and complete sunshine and hot weather by the third hole after a 9am start.  Steve. M. won the bragging rights for our foursome when he had a natural birdie on the same par 3 course I had "beat the pro" three years earlier!

Great memories also of that year with Joe R. (now in heaven) in our foursome at the hole sponsored by Glenn Bitzenhofer!  What a God wink with the reflection of a spiritual symbol of "Fishers of Men".  

2013 Armstrong Men Golf Outing

Steve Z.'s email Thursday evening about option plays on USO (ETF proxy for the price of oil) and today's WSJ article about "War leaves Economy with more Stubborn Inflation, Economists predict" got me questioning who is the most accurate - Weathermen or Economists?

Copilot weighed in -  "Weather forecasters, and it's not particularly close."

The rational is that Economists are trying to predict human behaviour and Weather forecasters operate under the laws of physics!   

Copilot goes on to chastize the Economists with:  "A famous comparison comes from economist Kenneth Galbraith, who joked that the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable." 

For proper parity -  "The weather forecaster is the only person who can be wrong half the time and still keep his job."

 But in the end - this says it all:  "Weather forecasters and economists have one thing in common: when they're right, nobody remembers; when they're wrong, everybody does."

Who Goes First?

The Wed. 7:15BC mens bible study group are concluding a study on Forgiveness using Fr. Thomas Berg and Dr. Timothy Lock's book "Choosing Forgiveness - Unleash the Power of God's Grace".  The book was excellent but the implementation is challenging.  As we learned together with the Made4More videos during Armstrong's Supercharge 2026 and subsequent small group study - the power comes with "WHO GOES FIRST?".  

The book stimuilated me to construct a Copilot assisted PowerPoint visual of Divine Forgiveness and Reconciliation.  I continue to be amazed at how AI increases my productivity, creativity, and skills.

 

One insight that I personally discovered in this study is the need to separate the offense ( or the wound) from the offender.  God hates sin (the offense) but still loves the Offender.  Only when the Wounded sees the divine forgiveness that God provides the Offender can he/she begin the process of healing and softening the heart with God's power.  

Still this is easier to display, intellectualize, and discuss - much harder to emotionally and prayerfully accomplish.  

One thing is for certain - GOD always goes FIRST!

If I Were King

It's appropriate to acknowledge 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence today.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Actually I have little memory of July 4th 1976 ( The150 anniversary) celebration since I was deep into my Internship at Arthur Andersen (Administrative Services Division) inserting BAL subroutines into an RPG software package called MAC-PAC; then recompiling the programs so that the DOS 360 IBM mainframe could execute the software package.   We were working evening shift when the mainframe was not in heavy use. But.... I digress in my memories that dominated my life 50 years ago.  I had little thought then of freedom and philosophical matters. I was just focused on completing my Masters Degree the next fall and getting a job!

What todays blog is really about is a journey in a thought experiment (similar to our Founding Fathers) that is also the topic of choice for the Vistage Alumni Group this month.   Here is the question.  

                    "If you were King of the World, what would you do?"

Naturally I took the "high tech" (or lazy) approach and asked AI for help.  I posed this question to Copilot, Gemini Pro, Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT-5, and Grok in two ways - first as if they had to answer themselves and second for structuring my answer to my Vistage buddies for the July meeting.  

One thing for certain is that these AI engines are USA and freedom biased because everyone of the AI engines said they would abdicate authority as soon as feasible. George Washington is considered our best president because he abdicated power and refused to be King.  Good to know AI has the same philosophy and courage.  

As for helping me decide what I would do as King, my dialogue with Copilot and Gemini Pro (the two AI engines that I use the most) went about 11 chats deep and came close to the same conclusion.  Abdicate power and don't focus on rule making.

Loading the Copilot chat data into NotebookLM produced an interesting video available on my Youtube channel.

The key punchline:  

"Maybe the most important job of a king is not governing behavior. Maybe it's giving people a reason to hope."

You Dig

Amazon Prime Days are over (4 days this year - June 23-26) and I have been hooked on purchasing all kind of gadgets, gifts and uneeded stuff for the last 5 years during this event.  This year a spontaneous purchase of yet another Firestick for $25 just to test the AI and voice integration feature.  

Last night I decided to install it on my 2019 LG ThinQ TV to determine compare the voice and lookup features.  The real effort in installing the Firestick is adding the apps and getting them authorized for the TV.  After adding nearly 20 apps, it was time to test.  My first observation is how confusing it is on so many streaming services with paid subscriptions - Netflix, YoutubeTV, Disney +, Apple TV, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount +, Amaxon Prime, MGM, the list is endless.  That presents the paradox of choice - a seemingly infinite set of content to choose from.

So ... what movie popped to mind?  "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" classic Clint Eastwood flick.  So with a voice prompt - there it was.  I watched two of my favorite scenes about "Two Kinds of People"

First was the interaction of Tuco and Blondie (Clint) regarding the partnership, risk, and how to split the robbed treasure once found.  Tuco defines his definition of "Two Kinds of People".   

Best yet - was the quote by Blondie (Clint) at the graveyard scene after killing Angel Eyes and responding to Tuco's question about removing the bullets from his gun. 

     "There are two kinds of people my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those that dig.  YOU DIG  :)