Compassion is rest.
To live with compassion means we don’t need to prove ourselves – that we don’t try to be better than someone else.
Compassion means that we don’t judge or criticise those who say and do things we disagree with, but accept that they, like us, have their weaknesses.
Compassion means that sometimes we do judge and criticise, even those close to us, but at that very moment we can forgive ourselves, as we’re forgiven, for these disturbing attitudes, and we’re free to move on.
Both they and we need compassion at the same moment. We discover that we’re in it together.
Compassion is a level playing field, where all have gone astray, all need mercy. No one is better or worse.
Which means that we can empathise with people who seem either less or more moral, whether posher or poorer, than us. Levels of morality, class and wealth, fade to grey, in light of compassion.
There are, in fact, no levels.
To accept that we need compassion makes us no better than someone who hasn’t yet realised that they too need compassion. We’re just lucky to be in that place.
Compassion means that we go easy on ourselves. After all, who are we to argue with God?
Compassion means that in every thought, word and deed, with so many mixed motives, honourable and dishonourable, even when we mistakenly think we’re doing the right thing… we’re honoured.
It means that this very moment, right now, we’re forgiven and free…and this moment…and this one.
Yes, and this one, too.
And this one.
And even this one.
Mercy is not just new every morning, but every moment.
Compassion means that every single second we can start afresh with a clean slate.
We don’t need to wait for a new day.
Which means a permanent state of restfulness, and of freedom.
Freedom to do what’s right.
Freedom to get things wrong.
Freedom from chains of society, religion, consumerism, one-upmanship, and showmanship.
And freedom to forget that we’re free from chains of society, religion, consumerism, one-upmanship, and showmanship – when we act as if we’re still enslaved. We can be forgiven for that, too!
In the world of compassion, even our hypocrisy is forgivable.
Compassion means that we don’t have to do anything!
To live with compassion is to be at rest.
Compassion is action.
Compassion means we can’t ignore the plight of the poor and the victimised.
Compassion means we can’t just walk by on the other side.
Compassion means we want to help.
That we will do what we can.
It means that love flows from a place of rest and freedom.
Those who receive compassion cannot help but give compassion.
Compassion means that sometimes we do walk by on the other side, but we discover that even our omissions are forgiven, and we learn from our mistakes.
To live with compassion means empathy with people in their weakness and vulnerability, because we know that we too are weak and vulnerable.
Compassion means that we don’t try and save the world, because we recognise our limitations and the strengths of others.
Compassion means that we care for ourselves too,
that we’re equal to others for whom we feel compassion. We recognise that we too need support, mercy, love and empathy.
Compassion means life with purpose, destiny, and love expressed in deed.
To live with compassion is to be stirred into action.
To have found this compassion so long ago remains, for me, a miracle bombshell blessing:
Compassion in the shape of Jesus.
(Wondering what this blog is all about, and who A Child of Grace is?
Please read my About page. Thanks! Roger N)