The Way of Compassion - Grace

Have you ever felt like you got something wrong? Have you ever got into trouble and needed someone's help or forgiveness to get out? Have you ever felt yourself vulnerable before a power greater than yourself? Have you ever been ashamed of your actions or disappointed in yourself? 

What do we do in those situations? Do we try and rewrite the story to make ourselves look better? Do we become a victim? Do we appeal to another's compassion or mercy? Do we harden up and isolate? Do we try being kind to ourselves and extra kind to others to compensate? 

What is our reaction then, when the offended party forgives us, when we receive a reparatory hug from a friend, when that person or entity of power loosens its grip and gives us a chance, when the person that we owe tells us we are off the hook? Or on a deeper level, what if the one who we ultimately feel accountable to, the holder of the truth of our lives, the lover of our souls, says we are seen in all our mess and beauty and potential and we are forgiven? Pretty good right?

The essence of true forgiveness and mercy, is that there is no price tag on it, it is freely given, though it may have cost the giver. But there is something else important about it: for it to stay alive it must move through us towards others.

Jesus tells a parable of a servant who owed a lot of money to an important king, but when he was acquitted of his enormous debt, he aggressively confronted a fellow servant who owed him less. It sounds mad, but unfortunately our blind spots are bigger than we think. Jesus likens this to having a log in our eye. We are quick to see the faults of others but slow to see our own hypocrisy. 

The economy of the Kingdom of God is grace, this means a continued flow of receiving and offering undeserved love and its power is incredibly healing. It is, however, often counter intuitive to our own sense of meritocracy and justice.

But the message is clear, true justice is 'to be merciful as your father in heaven is merciful', 'forgive and you will be forgiven', 'measure out as you would have measure' 'judge not and you will not be judged'. 

The Way of Compassion vs Competition

Compassion vs competition, ironic that even in the title of this post, some rivalry is implied. But really they are very distinct concepts, with a similar root. Competition also comes from something we have in common, a shared 'petition' or need. The difference is in how we approach it. In competition there is a sense that there is only one winner: if you get your request met, there is a danger that I wont. We fight over the last scrap of bread or the top spot.

With compassion however we are all winners and we are all losers. We share the experience of life with all its beauty and peril. Your less is not my more.

Competition is a fear response to the survival situation we have been launched into since birth and we are taught it everywhere, in school, in leisure, in the media, at work. So much so, it is hard to unravel it from our psyche. We are scared there is not enough, or that we are not enough, the open hand becomes clenched and we tough it out.

The path of compassion has a different mentality at its core. Yes we all have needs, but that is not a motive to fight but rather to share, the suffering and the joy of this crazy situation we find ourselves in. Rather than worrying about what people might take from us, we are called to give. 

Where are we all going in such a rush? Life is not a race ... no one is getting there first. How we live is the essence of life, the prize the love we experience along the way ...

The Way of Compassion - Growing Pains

The thing about humans is that we are born into vulnerability and necessary struggle. How scary to be launched into a world, wholly unprepared for survival, with complete reliance on another to ensure your safety! Of course a baby recently fed, asleep in their mothers arms, shows little sign of worry, but most parents will also have vivid memories of their offspring's bone-chilling night-time screams, cries for help from a place of complete dependency.

An average, a human baby takes a year to start walk, whereas for a horse foal, it is a matter or minutes. Whether by evolution or design, the human set up requires love. Not just any type of love, but the self-sacrificing thankless type, psychologically, the early years brain struggles to develop with out it.

So here we have it, to some extent we are all born into varying degrees of pain and love. We all have need, we all have struggle. we do not come out of a factory cling wrapped and ready to go. If we featured in a human unboxing video, we would be sent back for not meeting the specs. We grow and it hurts. How many of our erroneous decisions come from trying to get our needs met in the wrong way? Not everyone grows in the same environment or with the same level of support. The playing field is not level.

The Latin root meaning of Com-Passion means to suffer with. Surely if anything is the deepest human reality, this is it and we are all in it together. The loving parent does not condemn the child for their need, but rather helps them to grow, whilst suffering themselves in the process.  

So back to my train of thought about the ways of Christ. I sense from his words and actions in the gospels, that this was his 'attitude', this was how he saw the people he met, with compassion. He did not see 'sinners', but children of suffering, born into a world that had forgotten how to share the burden.

The Ways of Christ

Just jamming here with some new thoughts - well thoughts that have been marinading for a while and have come to the surface ...

I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE ... words of Jesus, the Christ. I am not in much doubt that Jesus had something special, knew something special or embodied something special. Whatever stance you take, its hard to deny the influence of his person on history.

In modern Western Christianity there has been great emphasis placed on adhering to doctrinal beliefs as a passport to paradise. But here's the thing ... Jesus was an eastern dude. With the rising popularity of eastern philosophy, often grounded in practise, I can't help thinking there is something we are missing if we only operate in a western formulaic mindset.

There is a WAY of doing, living, thinking that is embodied in Jesus's life and teaching which is a path to liberation, even transcendence, if you like. I would like not only to unearth and understand it, but to live, breathe and walk in it. 

Indeed the first Christians were known as the people of the WAY.

Show me your Ways Oh God.

More to come ...