Presenting ...
... a weekly letter of encouragement.
Singapore
May 10, 1995
Good Morning!
COMPASSION - A rather unsettling idea for people
in a hurry...
How does a person feel compassion when he is cruising above
it all in the fast lane: Scurrying secretaries, board meetings,
flights to catch, weighty decisions to make.
COMPASSION IS FOR PEOPLE WITH TIME ON THEIR HANDS!
Jesus however, had time for compassion. He felt
people's needs and was deeply moved by them. And ended
up feeding the hungry hoards and lovingly healing society's castoffs.
(Matthew 9:36; Mark 1:41-42)
But the disciples, like me, were rather annoyed by the heaving
masses and the dirty lepers, who today are those frumpy, disheveled
types with grubby beards, bratty kids, delinquent mortgage payments,
dented cars and boisterous wives.
People surviving around the fringes of the American Dream and out of sync with the rest of us. People with whom I have nothing in common.
Do I have tolerance for them? Possibly. Do I feel compassion
for them? Hardly.
In fact, if I am really honest, those people clutter
up my landscape. But, because of my affluence, my education...really,
because of my PRIVILEGED position in society, I am able
to avoid and insulate myself from them.
And...If I care to admit it, the way I deal with them
is to be polite, but NEVER get involved.
Could it be that the greatest plague today is not AIDS
or inner city crime, or even the starving masses in some third
world countries, but "our lack of love and charity, the
terrible indifference towards one's neighbor who lives
at the roadside assaulted by exploitation, corruption, poverty
and disease?"+
Calvary love leaves me no option but compassionate involvement:
Jesus, while eating with the prostitutes and the city's lowlife,
instructed the censoring religious types,
"...Go and learn what this means, 'I DESIRE
COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:13)
My prayer is that you are having a great week!
Dwight Hill
+Something Beautiful for God" - Malcom Muggerige
© Copyright 1996 Dwight Hill. Unlimited permission to copy or use is hereby granted subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.
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