Tying the strings together

As of late, I’m finding myself captivated by stories of people willing to sacrifice physical comfort, material wealth and security to journey beside the suffering. Though I don’t know these two men (Daily Life, Journeying with Exiles), I can’t believe their commitment to live a life of compassion. It’s awing and humbling.

I was trying to think through why I was so riveted by these people’s lives and missions. I’ve always had a particularly sensitive spot for the homeless, but that wasn’t it. I guess when I read their thoughts on service and I can feel the compassion seeping out through their words.

It plucks at my heartstrings. It is reminiscent of my own story.

Quite simply, compassion is the overflowing of love, and love was precisely what drove me to Kenya, though I didn’t understand it at the time.

My online brother states it so beautifully…

“What I want is for you to be so overwhelmed by the wonder of God's love that it overflows out of you and leads you naturally to those who are the most desperate for that love, to those who are, literally, dying without it. If guilt is what motivates you, then the chances are that what you do won't be that meaningful, and it probably won't be something you end up doing for any sustained amount of time. But if love is what motivates you, then I think the world will be transformed and you will be able to remain in hard places because you delight in the company of God's beloved -- the 'lost sheep' and the 'least of these.” (Italics mine)

I shiver when I read those words. I AMEN wholeheartedly, for I too believe in the power of love.

I am convinced that overflowing love can bring spiritual deliverance, heal the sick, comfort the poor, mend decimated hearts, rebuild nations, cultivate peace and generally bring heaven to earth.

This world is not a place that perpetuates that belief. Our entire lives and work environments are organized to conform to the ideology that power triumphs. The idea that love, a weak and vulnerable gesture, could really change things is just so counter to how we’re wired.

We are deceived into thinking that we must hoard our good things. We believe that must not show weakness. We feel that we must not be the last.

But there comes a point in our deepening lives as Christians that Jesus’ words of over-the-top, unabashed love simply become a part of you. You wake up one morning and say that the world is wrong. You will find that you have a fire in your belly to feed his sheep (John 21:18), to prove that those who mourn WILL be comforted (Matthew 5:4) and to demonstrate compassion lived out (Matthew 15:32).

This looks so different for everyone, but I know one thing with all certainty: When God moves in our lives and asks us to be his hands and his feet, it is as a result of a love bubbling up in our hearts that we are asked to go, not because of guilt that eats away at us.

I could have gone to Kenya because I felt guilty. As an American, there's a lot to feel guilty for. Hell, I may have even raised the money and gotten there, but I would have only been half-present while I was there. For those people beside me this summer, they'll know I've never been more alive and present.

At the time, I didn’t understand why I felt so much for a people I’d never even met. I mean, I simply couldn’t fathom the reality of their world. But I knew that a love and curiosity and passion simply manifested itself in my life and I had done nothing to create it. I woke up one morning and it was there, just as if my hair color had changed or I’d grown an extra limb.

It was not the outgrowth of guilt. It was not a product of any “good Christian service.”

It was the creation of a new kind of love.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35