TRUE COMPASSION

I saw this video today and thought is was so precious! 

It immediately put me in mind of someone who once explained the compassionate, sacrificial, incarnational love of Jesus using this  illustration:

Do you love your dog?

If you knew that the only way to save the entire race of dogs from becoming extinct was for you to give up all the comforts and privileges and benefits of being a human, and take on the form of a dog knowing you could never return to your original form and human glory, in order to enter in their lower canine "realm" and save them, would you do that?

Most of us dog lovers would be quick to shout, "Yes! Absolutely!" 

But if you thought about it... would you really be content to eat dog food, pee outside, perhaps live outside, possibly be abused and neglected with no way to control that, possibly homeless or left to wander the streets and eat out of trash cans, or in every way subject yourselves to suffer the indignities of being a "lower" canine creature for eternity?  Would you really still say yes?

Jesus did that for us.

I recently read an interview by Jazz Theologian, Robert Gelinas, in Urban Faith with Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah titled, Sharpening Our Cultural Intuition.  While I have not read Rev. Soong-Chan Rah's book Many Colors yet (it's on my list), there was a quote from the interview that has resonated in my soul since I read it. The entire interview is excellent and I recommend you take a few moments, click on one of the links above, and read it.  The quote by Soong-Chan Rah that struck a chord in me was this:

The Bible teaches us that this is the example that Jesus gave to us. He came into the world in human flesh, and he can empathize with our suffering because he himself also suffered. Our inability to show compassion towards the suffering is a horrid witness to the incarnational love that Jesus has shown.

True compassion sees only the suffering.  It doesn't see social status, race, creed, color, age, income, or gender.  It doesn't ask how you got in your terrible condition, nor does it place conditions on whether it will help or not.  It simply understands the value of life, sees the suffering, comes alongside of the one suffering and says:

... I will weep with you (Romans 12:15) and I will help.

May we  learn.

 

The Making of God

The examination of the existence of god fails to explore the wide range of images of god that exist in the human mind. When I am asked if I believe in god, I need to reply "What does your god look like?" If I believe in a "god" that consists of a cloud of sub-atomic particles, devoid of thought, may I claim a belief in god? 

 

Len Sanders, 8/23/10 in answer to the question:

  Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete?

Have you ever been disappointed by God?  Ever felt He was unjust, unfair, maybe even a little cruel in His dealings with you?  Ever wonder why God didn’t prevent a tragedy or a trauma in your life and perhaps why He seems to disappear when you need Him the most?

Have you questioned His ability to save, rescue, heal or reconcile? Ever just get tired of waiting for months or even years for an answer from Him? Ever feel like your once vibrant faith has been shipwrecked and you’ll never be able to sail on faith the way you once used to?

I think any believer who is conscious has felt at least one if not all of these things at one time or another.

I recently finished reading a book by Phillip Yancey titled, What Good is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters.  In one chapter, he told briefly of a lady pastor who found it impossible to pray for 18 months after her son died.  Even after her attempt to reconcile with God it took an additional six months before she could really pray. I found great comfort in that story.  I’ve been in that place of broken faith. Different circumstances - same devastation.

When we suffer great disappointment or tragedy and God doesn’t seem to care or even show up, we call into question just who He is and wonder what our faith is all about. While these doubts are normal and there is certainly grace sufficient to cover them (just read The Book of Job), it leaves us vulnerable to perhaps forget who He is and what He says about Himself and about His love for us.

When these things happen, ask yourself this one question:

Am I placing my faith in a God that I have made, 

or in the God that has made me?

What a humbling query.

The truth is, we all form an idea in our minds about who God is and what He will do.  If we could instantaneously believe 100% without failing or faltering in what scripture tells us about God, we would never have a crisis of faith.  So much of our concept of God is based on what we were taught as children, past personal experiences and where we currently are in our understanding and faith walk. In essence, over time, if we are not careful, we end up making God into what we think He is, or what we think He should be, instead of simply believing  in who He says He is.

Is the God you pray to a temperamental, moody, spiteful, wishy-washy, control freak, or the tender, merciful, loving, holy, righteous, compassionate, victorious God He says He is?

The problem with faith is that you have to practice it in order to get good at it and many give up before it is ever established in their life. Unfortunately, the only arena to practice our faith  in, is in the arena of adversity.  If we can be honest with each other for a moment -  not many of us volunteer to go there!

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews11:1 

It is easy to believe in what we can see or what we know, but not so easy to believe in things unseen or unknown.

If you are feeling stalled in your faith, ask yourself this simple question before you pray next time: exactly who am I praying to? Is it the God that I have made in my mind? Or the God who made me? Am I subconsciously expecting an answer based on my limited knowledge and belief, or based on what God has said in His word?  

Before we approach God for anything, it may be helpful to remind ourselves of these five promises.*  These truths about who HE is will help redirect our focus from who we think He is, to Who He says He is.

(1)    God is ALWAYS with ME. I will not fear.
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:20 (NLT)

(2) God is ALWAYS in CONTROL. I will not doubt.
After all the difficulties in Job's life, and after challenging God, Job humbly declared: 

I know that you can do everything and that your plans are unstoppable. Job 42:2 (GWT)

(3) God is ALWAYS GOOD. I will not despair.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:8-9 (NKJV)

(4) God is ALWAYS WATCHING. I will not falter.
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
Psalm 139 1-6 (NLT)

(5) God is ALWAYS VICTORIOUS. I will not fail.
But praise be to God who makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of him.
2 Corinthians 2:14 (BIBE)

Sometimes, we just need to adjust our thinking.  And sometimes, it takes a simple question to set us straight and get us back on the right path.  

May we find grace, today and always, to believe in the God who made us, instead of the God that we make.

* The five promises are taken from the book titled, Always True: 5 Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises, by James MacDonald. I have not read the book so I do not know if the scriptures I chose for this blog correspond to what Mr. MacDonald has written.

Another good reminder...

Finding Grace in the Pain

One of the great mysteries of faith regarding God’s grace is: where is God’s grace or love in the pain and suffering of life? Why do bad things happen to good people? How do we reconcile the belief that God is a good God who loves us, yet allows so much suffering? Have you ever wondered these things in your own circumstances or prayed, God, where are You?  God, why did this happen to me or my loved one?

These are very valid questions. How do we find God’s grace in the pain? If you have ever asked the question Why?, then you are in good company since scholars, theologists and laypersons have been trying to answer that question for years. To leave you with the idea that God’s grace encompasses only a showering His love and affection on us all the time without understanding the entire scope of grace would be unfair. To cause you to believe that if you follow God, all your problems in life will vanquish and you will never experience pain ever again, would be unfair. So, in follow-up to my last post, we will look at two things: 1) the purpose of pain and 2) a deeper understanding of grace.

THE PURPOSE OF PAIN

There is a very rare congenital disease called congenital analgia a/k/a congenital insensitivity to pain (CIPA). Only 35 people in the United States have this condition and of those that have it, very few live past the age of 25. These people cannot feel pain at all. Most of them die horrific deaths. A 10-year old boy in India died because his appendix ruptured and he couldn’t feel the pain to know he was sick or to tell anyone, so he bled to death. In the Ukraine, a baby girl born with CIPA shredded her lips when she was teething and then, at the age of 3, put her hand on a hot stove and left it there until her parents smelled her burning flesh and found her sitting in a pool of blood.

Like it or not, pain is necessary. Spiritual, emotional or physical growth cannot occur without pain. It is, in a sense, one of our greatest teachers in life. Not being able to feel physical pain is incredibly dangerous. You need pain to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. You need pain to tell you when to move away from something because it is causing you harm. Most people try to avoid causing pain to themselves, but it is because they have felt pain that they are able to avoid those things that initially caused the pain. The very same is true of emotional or spiritual pain.

Pain comes into our lives in various ways:

I Will Love You Freely

The Human Economy of Love

We grow up in an entirely different economy of love than God’s love.  Simple behavior modification methods train us from infant on up that certain behaviors are acceptable and others are not.  If we behave well, the consequence is reward.  If we behave badly, the consequence is punishment.  Please do not misunderstand, it is necessary to do this. Even God provided the law as a means of disciplining and guiding his people to maturity, both in relation with each other (socially) as well as in relation to Himself.