A person fully ensouled is a person who has become thoroughly compassionate. Compassion represents the triumph of grace over nature.....Compassion, it may be worth noting, is not the same as sympathy or empathy. One can sympathize with others without necessarily being compassionate. Sympathy develops because we are fellow sufferers; all of us have to endure pain, diminishment, disappointment and loss at the some time or another. Each of us mourns the death of loved ones. Each of us knows sorrow and regret.
But compassion is connected with forgiveness and forgiveness depends upon two things: the readiness to let go of injuries and an awareness of one's own inner poverty and sinfulness.....
Divine compassion proceeds from love pure and simple.
--William Reiser in Seeking God in All Things: Theology and Spiritual Direction
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It's SUNNY : :
Today it is bright and sunny here in Minnesota. Not rainy, like many other Memorial Days I can remember in the near past. It may actually be a "memorial" day after the rainiest May ever.
Needless to say, no deep thoughts today. I am going to go OUTSIDE!
Have a great day.
Love with Money : :
Alan Creech, an emergent blogger, writes about his friend Mark Palmer and his struggle with cancer. In his post on April 20, he says "It's time to help. It's time to love with money."
I have been intrigued by the number of bloggers who have set up links to a PayPal account to help Mark and his family pay his medical bills. It seems to me much like an old school small church "passing the plate" for a need within the congregation. The willingness to "help" is compassionate and Christ-like, very Gospel.
As our children have grown into adulthood, my husband and I have learned through trial and error about "loving with money." Our cardinal rule is, if and when we "help" with money, it is totally "free gift." There can be no strings, no expectations, just an open hand and grace.
It's hard, I must admit, to lay down our parental desire to control, fix, cajole, or reward through gifts of money. We love our kids and the launch into adulthood can be rather turbulent. Our hearts move towards wanting "to help" when a need is expressed but have learned our own stuff, our limited understanding of the whole picture, can get in the way of truly helping. We also have limited resources so we have to weigh what is feasible with what is desirable. To give, and then let go of the outcome, is a good spiritual discipline for us. We seem to always be in a learning cycle as parents.
I wonder what God may be teaching the givers through the "helping" of Mark? What new places of surrender and compassion have they, will they, experience? AND What can we learn from them?
Understanding Blog Silence : :
A few of my blogging friends have gone into blog silence for some reason or another. Some are well planned out and announced and others just disappear off the map. Up until now, I thought it was busyness or lack of interest in blogging. (Slackers!) But I am beginning to understand as certain ones reappear into blog world, there is something else happening--they are in life situations way beyond what I knew. I feel convicted of my naivete. I am trained as a pastoral care type to not assume, but ask, check out what I may be sensing from another's communication or lack of, to understand what is really going on. I have failed.
I sense now a new conviction to pray for you my blogger friends as I click away each morning to see what is happening in your world. If it is silence I find, well, I will not jump to the conclusion of busyness as much as wondering. And then I will pray for you. Not a complex prayer of what I "know" is happening in your life, but simple words of care and surrender of your life and circumstance, whatever it is, into God's hands.
To always learning, always growing...
Cool Blog : :
Isaac found a beautiful and fun new blogsite created by Karen Cheng. It's won recognition for design. Take a look here .....
Be sure to check out the header gallery. Very cool.....
Another Good-bye : :
Said my good-byes to the old homestead this weekend. It was odd walking through the house again, seeing the changes the new owner is already making to it--knocking down walls, opening up the staircase, new can lighting in the living room, painting the bedrooms, and re-doing the upstairs bathroom. So quickly the old passes away and the new comes.
I find myself somewhat melancholy with all the changes happening so fast. I still think about all the stuff that has gone in the dumpster, forever out of sight but not out of memory. It so odd. The re-counting of all of it comes so easily. The memories are very present and so is the stuff.
The one place I found myself staring at, as Jessie (my daughter) and I walked through the place one last time yesterday, was the stove--a funny white electric stove that has stood the test of time and survived many years of use, almost forty if I am doing my math right. As I contemplated the steel frame of the GE range, in the mist of my mind I saw my mom cooking. I "saw" her standing there. She had on her housecoat and disheveled moccasin type slippers with the heels squashed down in the back. Once again she was making dinner for us all.
I "saw" her a lot in the last month as I have been in the house. In a place of turning around a corner or entering doorway, cleaning out a drawer, touching old books, or playing the piano, she was there. Her memory is so connected to the space for me.
I don't necessarily grieve the loss of the house, it is time for a new beginning for my dad. I grieve her now in the place where she was and lived.
Bye mom...again. I will probably be forever finding reasons to say good-bye to you again and again until someday we finally say "hello."
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Wife, mom, pastor, spiritual director, student, friend, mentor, church planter, survivor.
