Tag Archives: compassion

Can We Have a Little Compassion?

I shared this article on Facebook last week, but I think it’s important enough that I’m going to share it again:

There’s a lot of freaking out happening right now over gender issues. I think much of it comes down to misunderstanding. Transgender is a weird issue and a lot of us don’t understand it.

If we say that we love people, then we need to try to understand it and have some compassion. That article is a start.

Because you may not know it yet, but you probably know a transgender person. I didn’t know anyone personally—until today. We need to listen. We need to [try to] understand. We need some compassion.

And we’re going to ask dumb questions or say offensive things. And we’ll need grace.

I came across this passage in the book I’m reading right now, Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. The main character, Pat, has some kind of mental health issues and he just read the very depressing The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Pat asks his therapist why kids in school should have to read it:

“Life is hard, Pat, and children have to be told how hard life is.”

“Why?”

“So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one’s head.”

Some of us have life easier than others (another way to describe privilege). And so before we judge people based on that or apply our theology or political ideology to it, I think we need to have some compassion.

What other response should we have to hurting people?

Why Haiti Matters: Compassion by Connection

As the Haiti earthquake has come and gone I still find myself transfixed by the coverage. Short bursts of 140 characters, video clips, pictures, news articles. As stories come in it’s hard to ignore. And it’s not the bird’s eye view of CNN that’s so engaging, it’s the people I know, the friend of a friend, or the city or village where I know people. I’ve wondered why Haiti is different, different from other tragedies of late. I do think part of it has to do with the spread of social media. But there’s something else.

It hit me last week when I read the story of Aaron Ivey and his adopted son still in Haiti. Aaron blogged about the earthquake:

I remember seeing images of the tsunami that hit southeast Asia in 2004.  They were on the news constantly, and I was saddened by the footage of loss and sorrow.  But, I didn’t know anyone there.  I didn’t have friends, muchless family members that were affected by the tragedy.  Everything changes when your friends and family are directly connected to something so tragic.  I feel the weight of this Haitian burden in an unexplainable way.  For my son, Amos, who slept on a mattress outside last night.  For my friends Licia, Lori & Zach who no doubt began stitching wounds in the early hours of sunlight.  For my friends Troy & Tara and their beautiful kids, who are anxious and worried about food and fuel supplies to run generators.  For all the kids that I’ve held and kissed and played with at Real Hope For Haiti and Heartline.  For my Compassion kid, Wonsli, his grandmother, and all ther kids in his project.  The list goes on…faces I’ve memorized…names I’ve learned.  Real people, because I’ve been there.  Not just images or footage this time.

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