Discover the Power of Thoughtful Compassion
Good Morning Friends,
Understanding the nature of and flow of power is so important if one hopes handouts can help humanity. I am on a Missional Team at the Presbytery and I figure our role is to help distribute knowledge with love though missions. If the flow is one way, power can be sequestered in the lives of the rich givers robbing others. It is an injustice of sorts when it is reduced to money. What we perceive as the Holy Spirit can be misdirected to fuel one’s own agenda. The unintended consequences of helping actions can be a massive disservice to the poor and the rich as well. Emergency giving is fine but if it perpetuates as an institution without building capability and competence of the people in need, dignity suffers. This goes for raising kids too. What one thinks is a contribution becomes contaminated. This kind of helping hurts. What is needed is encouragement and deeper listening as we Discover the Power of Thoughtful Compassion.
Scripture: Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
Isaiah 58:9-10 (NIV)
“The King will reply, “. . . whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
1 John 4:6 (NIV)
When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.
Mark 8:19 (NIV)
Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
1 Corinthians 10:24 (NIV)
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18 (NIV)
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35 (NIV)
Message: Jesus perceived the world from an asset-based model… not a needs-based one. Oh he saw the need, but the focus is not there. For Jesus, the water was just waiting to become wine. The little boy’s loaves and fishes were just the right thing to begin a blessing for 5000 people. Illiterate fisherman were perfect for spreading the Good News. The woman at the well was just the person to change a village. Friends, the glass was overflowing for Jesus not just half full and certainly not half empty. Perspective is so important when one is welding power. In Jesus the potential is prompted. In Jesus Christ things are made new. To be missional then is to be compassionate in community. And here if we listen deeply we learn in love that the mission of Christ has church that is growing organically. This is how Jesus goes about His ministry in us… loving the Father and His neighbor as well. He could have just healed people and been done with it, but He always took it a step further by touching the human heart of another as his own humanness grew in compassion. We too are to offer to create such a very emotional and moving memory in our work. We too are to share in this relationship where pity and compassion converge. And so too today we are called as the Body of Christ to be deeply moved, for that is how we comply with the law…that is how Jesus has come to us…
Pray we realize that the change comes from the inside out. Pray we never do for the poor what they can do for themselves. Pray we strive to empower the poor. Pray we serve others without our self-interest in focus. Pray we listen to those we seek to help. Pray we become effective in service. Pray we are not philanthropic parasites. Pray we do not hurt those we hope to help. Pray we love Mercy and Do Justice. Pray we reflect the truth of Christ as we grow in Christ and Christ grows in us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 