Living Colors of Compassion

My heart beats hard, my eyes water, my fists clutch to my chest, my mouth utters a prayer, "AH! God..."

This is not pain.  It's something different.  It explodes inside me.

     This is compassion.

                 And, I don't know what to do with it.

                          But I know I MUST do SOMETHING or my insides will rip apart.

LIVING COMPASSION

Actually, my insides are more likely to become emulsified than to rip apart.  When we ignore the call of compassion, of sacrifice, of loving and giving to others over "self," something dies within us.  It's like coral - coral is a beautiful, colorful living species in the sea, the moves freely and gracefully with the ebb and flow of the tide.  BUT, when it is cut off from the life source, it hardens and dries out.  It cannot move, and it no longer is vibrant and alive.  Our heart, like the coral, must continually move with the flow of the Holy Spirit and stay connected to compassion, or we become hard and dried out with all the life and vibrance sucked out from us.  After all, our heart is supposed to be JESUS' heart for others, so when we ignore this beat - this implosion within to love and give to others - we ultimately ignore Jesus.  The book I'm reading right now paints a picture of what compassion in action can do in our lives:  it says that our lives  will "blaze" with evidence of Jesus all over our lives - yes, blaze with those vibrant colors alive and moving within our hears.   

"When we look out beyond ourselves, when our love for others pushes us beyond the comfortable, when we place our treasure in rebuilding lives, it is then that we find ourselves living among the clearest signs that God is at work in our lives...the evidence of love in action will be blazed all over our lives, transforming our neighborhoods and breathing hope into the atmosphere."                                           The Love Revolution, Meyer.

DO SOMETHING

We might know this, we might agree with this, but as I am, we may all be simply clutching our fists to our heart, fighting the tears of compassion expanding but without knowing WHAT THE HECK WE CAN DO to stop hunger, abuse, prostitution, slavery, poverty.  

Like most, I don't really know what I can do to stop the injustices and pains of this world:

       BUT I'VE ABSOLVED TO DO SOMETHING....

Something is better than nothing, and it will keep me rooted-alive in the ocean all around us that seeks to uproot us and pull us away from the Source of Life.  

COMPASSION IN ACTION

Here's where it gets practical.  If we pick just one of these actions to do a week, we begin to see our lives explode with so much color that it begins to reflect upon those around us.  Maybe these activities seem small, but better to let compassion works it's course, then to let it petrify our hearts by it's constant barrage of tears within, just longing to extend outwards to others.  

• Give food to a homeless individual, or simply stay and talk with him or her for awhile; let them tell their story, it will make them feel human again.
• Pick a charity that makes your heart beat a little faster and give just $20 to $50 dollars.  Even $10.  We all can skip going to the movies that month, and spend the $10 on feeding a child, stopping prostitution, or helping SI (self-injury) victims.
• Make TIME for someone hurting and lonely.  Listen, follow up, and really TRULY care.  Don't try to solve all their "problems," care and listen first.
• Play with a child!  I know this does not seem like compassion, but staying sensitive to little children keeps our hearts soft - after all, Jesus himself demonstrated this, "Let the little children come unto me."
• Volunteer - soup kitchens, Special Olympics, community centers...most run off of people responding to the call of compassion and volunteering.
• Mentor a youth.  With the divorce rate over 50%, you'll find most youth today are from homes that are broken, and they are also broken inside.  They need role models and people to LOVE them unconditionally.
• Talk about it!  Blog, write, speak to another about having compassion for others.  Stir it up within those around you.  Even if they've become like the hardened coral already, there is a little bit of life just longing to be stirred back up within most everyone.
• Cook for an elderly neighbor or offer to mow their lawn or help with whatever he or she needs.
• Donate to canned food drives, etc.  There's always something going on in your area to raise supplies or food.  
• Check out these websites:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/  (this is a link to Operation Christmas Child, which is one of the many things they do and something I enjoy every year since you can give a gift rather than just money); http://www.metroministries.org/index.php (donations go to helping inner-city children with school supplies, food, and keeping them off the street, teaching them to live for Jesus instead.  I know someone who knows the founder personally, and can verify that every penny will go to rescuing the children from lives of prostitution, violence, and gangs); http://www.ceitci.org/about/changing-a-generation (I use to work for Ceitci personally, and with her organization spanning from Bulgaria, Ghana, and Uganda, she helps with Child prostitution, the Child-soldiers of Uganda, building wells in Africa, providing for the outcast young ones in Bulgaria)

The list goes on; the acts of compassion go as far as your imagination can take them.  The key is, to follow your passions.  What are you passionate about?  Use that to give to others!  Maybe you're passionate about music, so play at nursing homes.  Like me, you could be passionate about writing, so write about this and write for the hurting (that's what I'm doing with my book); don't just write, DO SOMETHING though.  If you're passionate about children, tutor them or join Big-Brother, Big-Sister.  The point is, God put a passion in your heart to work out in compassion for others!

BEING THE BARRIER TOGETHER

If we all allow our hearts to become vibrant and alive in compassion as a church, imagine what would happen!  In sticking with the coral metaphor, think of the Great Barrier Reef.  Alone, coral does not make much of a change, but interlaced together like this Reef, it changes the entire environment of the massive ocean around it.  Not only does it create a barrier from the overpowering waves and alter the tides, but it is a harbor and safe place for all the creatures of the sea.  AND, it takes your breath away!  The American church operating in compassion together can change the tides of the sea which is moving towards selfishness.  It can hold back or repair the damage of the waves to so many lives.  It can be a safe haven for those who need a place to belong.  And, when we become this, we WILL take the breath of the world away, for it will allow God's beauty to be displayed in, through and around us!  We were meant to be a living, moving, colorful community that stops others in their tracks and causes them to ask, "How can I be a part of THAT?"  

SO, START BY JUST DOING SOMETHING!