True Compassion

Hey again. I'm back to tell you a little more of what God's been doing in my life and people around me. First of all, I want to praise God for the relationships he's given to me: the many good friends I have and am growing closer to here at college, my family back home who I get to talk to on the phone fairly often, the girl I'm mentoring long-distance over the phone (I love Amanda!), and the older friends that I still get to keep in touch with. The first couple of weeks here I had a hard time trying to sort out who to spend my time with now that I was no longer dating, and I felt sorry for myself that I didn't have the close relationships that I wanted. After a while I came to my senses and realized that I had been waiting for others to come to me and picking and choosing who I wanted to be friends with. Instead, I should realize that friendships are not a selfish endeavor. I should be friends to those who need friends, not just those who I think are the coolest, nicest people. And I should not expect others to expend more effort than I do. Anyway, it all comes down to the fact that my wants are not that important.

I thought I had learned this lesson, but I was in for a surprise. God continued to expound on the idea of loving people different from me and having real compassion.

In one chapel and two of my classes last week, we talked quite a bit about multi-culturalism. These discussions reminded me of my tendency to gravitate toward people like me, rather than those I perceive as very different (whether by race, gender, background, or appearance). I think everyone has this tendency to some extent. It is important to keep it in check because (1)we can learn a lot from people different from us, and (2) in the church it is vitally important that we reach out to every culture and every type of person.

So, I was thinking about these things, and I was filling out an application to work at Bluewater this summer (I don't know yet if that's what I'll do, but it's a possibility). One of the hard questions was "what do you consider to be your strongest character quality?" Man, I don't know. When I start thinking about it, none of my character qualities seem that strong. I put down compassion, thinking about my sponsor child and my passion for the poverty of the Third World, the AIDS pandemic, and other things. But I wondered, am I really compassionate? Maybe it's easier to care for people and their problems when all I have to do is send a check in the mail. Do I really have compassion for the real people I encounter every day?

On Friday night I was convicted of just how far I have to go in the area of compassion.
There's a group on campus that works with the homeless every Friday night, and I decided to join them for the first time. We went to two homeless shelters, serving food, talking with the people, and listening with them to testimonies, sermons, etc. We also were encouraged constantly by the woman who leads it to be praying, another thing that impacted me. When we were done at these shelters, we set out in some vehicles and looked around the city to see if any people were actually staying outside that night. It was probably about 30 degrees below zero with wind chill. (There were signs on campus that warned as little as five minutes of exposure could cause frostbite!) So we brought blankets, scarves, coats, and whatever other donated materials we had so we could offer them to people that were living outside in this weather.
Being outside for about fifteen minutes in that weather was almost unbearable. I could not imagine what it would be like to sleep out there. But we did find people out there, about 5 or 6 of them camped out under an overpass. At first it seemed they didn't want to accept much from us. But we gave them some food and several scarves, which they appreciated. We gave them a couple of coats. One of them asked if we had any gloves. We all relayed the message back: did anyone have any gloves among the donated things? I don't know if there were or not. The guy said he wouldn't take them off of anyone's hands; he'd buy some later. All along I had been thinking about my mittens, my warm, beautiful mittens that match my hat and scarf that my roommate gave me for my birthday. I rationalized that they were probably too girly for these guys. After a while, my friend Melissa take off her mittens and handed them over. The guy didn't see that they had been hers, and gratefully accepted them.

Perhaps this wasn't a great sacrifice for her. But I was stunned at how much I rationalized clinging to my possessions instead of offering something that was so obviously needed. Though I've never considered myself materialistic, I realized that I am far too attached to the things I own. I am also generally far too focused on myself. I was glad for the experience Friday night that helped me see how incredibly blessed I am.

After mulling all these things over in my mind, I checked out Tyler's blog. The drawing he posted was so relevant to what I was thinking about. Check it out.

Thank you for reading all the way through. I hope this will spur you on to not be complacent. We need to love more than just the people we like. (Matt. 5:46-48)Biblical love is not a feeling, but an action. It takes a lot of effort and sacrifice. Join with me in striving to see people through God's eyes and loving others as if they were Jesus himself. (Matt. 25:31-46)