Our limited compassion is of the reasons for the dis-repair of the world. There is an unwillingness to take on the burdens of others, and there is a cheap avoidance of dealing with the problems of people we do not know. A nameless, faceless person to us is not necessary to help. We can get away with not helping them. If someone falls in front of you on the subway, and they fall hard, knee or perhaps face first…don’t we ask if they are ok? Maybe even help collect the papers or lunch snacks scattered upon their grounding. The need to us is present, blatant, we respond to a yelp or a resounding “HELP!!!!”. To walk by them in their distress is to be no longer human. Perhaps our mothers or Jesus has taught us this, and we make good either to avoid guilt or to do what us just simply good.
We all show compassion in one instance or another; but perhaps it is a consequence of our narrow focus and our brief attentions that can limit our compassion to those who are only in front of us. Do we ever search? Do we ever break our own backs and wills and hearts in order to find those in need? Do we study vivaciously and unapologetically to determine the need? Do we work uncompromisingly and sacrificially to meet it? The answer for most is a “no” and the reason for this “no” is perhaps the disjointed product of individualism, self-orientation, and money love. But there is also another reason;we are scared of what we will be forced to give up if we say “yes”. If I break my life up for those in need, what will be left for me? Nothing. I want to succeed and live in a nice home with 2 bright eyed children, a fun loving dog, and a beautiful wife. And so much of my life’s ambition, whether it be practical or religious, becomes reaching and maintaining this ideal. I pray for these things, i work for these things, i compete and sacrifice for these things: things that i think will make me happy, i give of my self for. This kind of sacrifice may yield happiness but will never yield selflessness; it will never compel us to go out of our way to sacrifice. It will never compel to give our cars away, to give our t.v.’s and fancy cologne away. It doesn’t require of us anything more than a passing limited compassion. We only feel for those who weep if they are willing to kneel and fall in front of us; we never go out at night and find those who are weeping…
We can use politics and civil religion and personal religion, and personal opinion, as a means of justifying our self-orientation. “Favor fortunes the bold” or “God rewards the diligent” but we are too scared to admit that the edifice we’ve been building our individuality upon may indeed be grumbling beneath us; we are too busy cupping salt water in our hands and throwing it over board to fathom that maybe all of our lives we’ve maintained a ship that only wonders in ever shrinking circles. Our oceans are filled with boats such as these. Our jobs and lives and churches are filled with the people that pilot these lonely vessels, collectively attempting to make it home, to finally see the light house after years of surviving the struggle…
Can i suggest another way? A better way, an intentionally compassioante way? A way of life that sails together with other ships? Can I suggest an armada of love? Can I suggest a way of life that is no longer piloted by our lonely, dreary circling but instead is something someday people will write about. It is the way Jesus taught and died and rose for. Can’t you see it? We weren’t freed to have nice things, we were freed to become liberators of the soul! The liberators of history! We will not stand for abuse, we will not stand for caged souls. We will not stand for heart breaking and gut wrenching unjustness, we will not stand for abuse! We will stand for the oppressed, we will stand for the addicted, we will stand for the heart broken, we will stand for the weak, we will stand for the poor, we will stand for the rich who still show no compassion, we will stand for our neighborhoods, we will stand for our neighbors, we will stand. This is the answer to limited and passing compassion, a direct aiming of our lives towards the need, a breaking up of ourselves for love. This is limitless, intentional compassion. This is not happiness, this is joy; this is contentment…
-dave from boy pilot
