A Must Read and Some Deep Thoughts on May Day
Why is this a must read? Because he says better than I what I want to say. And because it rocked my world this morning.
I am playing hookey from church this morning, without any real reason but fatigue and a perceived need to meditate and reflect (and conserve gas money, as I drive 25 miles to get there x 2 x 3.54 per gallon and use 2.5 gallons!). I am reflecting on cliches, and he addresses one right off the bat: More people would come to Christ if everyone in the church acted like Christ and really followed his teachings.
I've always doubted that, although my saying so is by no mean a defense of living in an unChristlike way. We are to model Christ fully because it is what God wants, not a public relations tool. The effects of really living His way, we cannot know. We are only to do it if and because we are Christ's, and while inward-focused moral purity is clearly involved, externally focused compassion is really more needful and surely more difficult. We are not to be compassionate so that others are impressed. As my son once said as a teenager, "Gandhi can blow it out his butt" (it's not like the Great Soul did much to help the untouchables or change the caste system).
Pity, empathy, and compassion are a Venn diagram. They share aspects but compassion distinguishes itself in action, at many levels. I don't care much about your empathy if it stays at the level of your emotional awareness. Pity can be condescending. Compassion does something as well as feels something.
French's quotations of Spurgeon support that his mind and heart towered over his fellows and speak to us today, thought "he being dead..."
I am facing a career situation and know in my heart of hearts that the claims of Christ on my life outweigh all other such matters. We probably face such choices every day of our lives!
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