FAITH: How we make people feel

You can tell a lot about a person by the way people feel after they’ve been around them. 

Some folks walk into a room and lift the air; others seem to drain it. Jesus, on the other hand, had a way of leaving people lighter. Even when He spoke hard truths, people walked away with a sense of hope. And that’s something I think about a lot: do the people around us feel loved, valued, and seen—because of us, or in spite of us? 

I’ve always believed that our faith ought to show up most clearly in how we treat people. 

That’s what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, when he said love “is patient and kind; it is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” 

Those aren’t abstract ideas; they’re relational ones. They describe a posture toward people—a way of making them feel safe and respected, even when we disagree. 

Now, I know life gets complicated. We get busy, tired, and sometimes cynical. But when Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35), He wasn’t talking about a feeling. 

He was talking about an effect. 

If people leave your presence feeling smaller, that’s not love. If they leave feeling like they matter to God, that’s the real thing. 

There’s some science behind that too. A 2021 study from the University of California found that people who perform just one intentional act of kindness a day experience higher levels of happiness and lower levels of anxiety. And interestingly, recipients of kindness are far more likely to “pay it forward.” In other words, kindness is contagious. 

The world catches what we’re giving off. 

Theologian Karl Barth once wrote that “the church exists to set up a world which is still dark as a sign of hope.” 

That’s what this looks like at a human level. When you smile at the grocery

clerk who’s had a rough shift, when you listen to your teenager’s worries instead of brushing them off, when you forgive before you’re asked—that’s mustard seed faith in motion. 

Small acts, big meaning. 

One of my favorite preachers, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, put it this way: 

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” 

That’s not just a to-do list; it’s a way of walking through the world so that people encounter the love of Jesus through ordinary kindness. 

Sometimes we underestimate the power of simple decency. But decency is holy work. 

I remember visiting a little church years ago where the greeter had one job—stand at the door, shake every hand, and say, “We’re glad you’re here.” It didn’t cost the church a dime, but it changed the way people felt. That’s the kind of thing Jesus meant when He said, “Let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:16). 

Light doesn’t argue. It just shines. 

So here’s the challenge for this week: 

Ask yourself, how do people feel after they’ve been around me? Do they feel judged, or do they feel like they’ve been with someone who believes in grace? 

If we could each make one person a day feel seen and valued, we’d be living out the Gospel in real time. 

Because in the end, faith isn’t just about what we believe. 

It’s about what people believe after they’ve met us.

Adam Johnson is a strategy consultant and ordained minister with two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership nationwide, currently the CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Jackson TN. He holds advanced degrees in nonprofit organization from the University of Memphis. Adam lives in Jackson with his wife, Kayla, and their daughter Josephine.