The Discipline of Compassion

Before I get to today’s theme … here is this week’s exciting news. After three long years in the writing, revising, editing and publication stages, the soft-cover proof copy of Downstream from Eden finally arrived at my door.

With some visiting friends and family, Tiffany and I celebrated with champagne and a prayer of thanksgiving. After a quick inspection I gave the green light to the publishers, and in a few short days both hard-cover and paperback editions will be available from this site. Watch for exact details.

For those who can’t wait, the e-book version is already available on Kindle, fractionally priced at $3.99 which is less than a penny a page, or even better at $3.49 from Kobo Books.

Now, for today’s theme from my list of disciplines for living in the most fully human way in our less-than perfect world --

“The Discipline of Compassion”

There’s a lot of pain in our world – and tears give that pain a poignant human face. Tears are perhaps the most exquisite form of water in the world – tears of suffering or loneliness, tears of grief or lament, tears of sympathy or of regret. And the frequency of tears in the Bible is a clarion call to compassion.

In the Bible, God's nature is described frequently as “merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love”. So people who reflect God’s image must respond with empathy and energy on behalf of those who suffer. Henri Nouwen says, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness.”

The Hebrew prophet Micah urges us to “act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). Jesus’ modeled this kind of sacrificial compassionate response to others in washing the feet of his disciples and then telling them – and us – to wash one another’s feet. That is a creative and tangible New Covenant way to express God’s compassion in the world. If every one of us lived like this, our downstream world would begin to look a lot more like Eden.

Compassion is not an alien concept – it is instinctively human as seen in our collective spontaneous response to the victims of a tragedy or disaster. But other motives also run deep in our souls that can cause us to turn away with indifference or unconcern. Compassion stretches us to become more human than we might otherwise be. We need to train ourselves to heed the call when compassion might be inconvenient or costly.
That’s where Jesus calls us to follow him into the fullest expression of being truly human.

Image Source:
Compassion Poster: A Must Read blog