cultivating compassion//practicing colossians 3:12 (part I)

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

A few years ago, the Dalai Lama argued that women have a greater capacity for compassion when he called for more leaders who embodied compassion.  He chalked up the woman's ability to be more compassionate than a man to her biological make-up.  I would imagine that is rooted in her maternal capabilities.  Women have the ability to form a unique physical connection with their offspring that I suppose could influence their ability to experience compassion because they can be so deeply acquainted with their own child and how it feels to "suffer with" one who was once a part of themselves.  But I would also venture to guess that socialization and cultural influence play more of a role than actual biological make-up.  It is an interesting theory nonetheless.

I think that I often struggle to understand compassion.  Compassion is usually a word I use interchangeably with empathy, but the more I examine empathy the more I see that these two words are quite different in meaning with each other.   I felt implored to look at compassion more deeply as I am studying through the book of Colossians.  Since I was 17, I have referred to Colossians 3:12-17 as my life verses, the words that I felt the Lord had laid on my heart to live out, particularly when it came to approaching a career in counseling.  They were verses shared with me by a mentor I had my junior year of high school. She encouraged me to pursue a life following Christ in which I utilized how He created and gifted me by providing counsel for others.  She saw this happening already throughout my high school years. I, however, was a little less enthused at the prospect.  It was one thing to listen to a friend and encourage her in a way that hopefully pushed her closer to Christ, it was another to say that was my life's purpose and possibly career.  

Of course, as it would work out, that is exactly what has become of my life.  The role of counselor is often where I find myself.  And even though I attempted to run away from it as a career, I can sense the Lord is drawing me back to it.  The words in these verses, written by Paul, exhort the Colossians to live in such a way that Christ-like characteristics are intentionally put on each day, and sinful inclinations and desires are intentionally set aside.  The former is the key to overcoming the latter.  

Where we begin in this effort is by asserting who we are.  "As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved" the Colossians, and thereby Christ followers are then instructed to clothe themselves in a list of Christ-like characteristics.  I often viewed the verses that follow as almost impossibilities to achieve.  And that is because I often view things like this, verses like these as work I need to do rather than a work Christ does in me. That is not to say, I passively sit by and ask the Lord to make me kind.  I do that, absolutely, because I recognize, in my flesh, following my most human desires, kindness isn't what naturally exudes.  However, if I am praying and seeking the truth of these words to take root in my own life, because I love the Lord and I desire to please Him then it becomes more of a tangible, real, authentic development in my inner being where kindness is something I aim to be and do.

As I have made my way to Colossians 3, in my study of this short book, I have found myself stuck on the word compassion.  I circled it.  I thought about it.  I defined it. I journaled about it.  I researched it.  I cross-referenced it.  I searched out where else in Scripture does compassion is noted. The most prevalent use of the word is to describe God himself, specifically in the Old Testament.

Then in the New Testament compassion becomes something Jesus acted in and with and then ultimately what followers of Jesus are called to act in as we have the model of God's compassion consistently with us, from the beginning of creation to now.

Compassion literally means to "suffer with"

Bearing that definition in mind and considering what I see in the Bible: Compassion is something that endlessly abounds from the Lord, like grace.  And yet, the recipient of constant compassion, I struggle to clothe myself in compassion day to day.  What I find easier to do is to cut others off, to handle things alone, to turn a blind eye, to ignore and avoid and hide.  That is easy, and relatively painless. To live and act in compassion, that is something that requires deeper understanding and a heart more deeply aligned with the will of the Lord.

So, how do I get there?

I think it begins with identifying what it looks like to put on compassion in my own life.  If I were to clothe myself with compassion each day, how might I respond to those around me differently?  Who might I reach out to as a result?  What might gain my attention because I am seeing and looking through the lens of compassion?

As I began to answer these questions for my own life, people started coming to mind, even things like a trip to the grocery store or walking around my own neighborhood look different.  The important thing to remember is that when compassion became a sort of rule to live by, a forced action, I know I am getting it wrong.  It is not a rule of law that I live with compassion, but rather an inclination of the heart that the Lord is cultivating in me.  Compassionate living is the vision that has been cast over my walk with God.  It is seeing everyone with equal dignity.  It is walking with my eyes that intentionally meet others.  It is not looking out for and seeking my own will in every circumstance, but approaching  each circumstance considering the other.

This is where I begin to cultivate compassion and clothe myself intentionally, daily with the character of Christ.  It is not about attaining perfection, but being somewhere different than I was yesterday.

Fulfilling my own desires and wishes each day do not get me any closer to my God ordained destiny.  But living in the clothing of compassion is a game changer.  It is drawing and shaping my heart to His and that is truly capturing the destiny I believe He is calling us towards.

 

IT//Why I love it & why it is more than just a "horror" movie

  "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts."

In 1990 when Stephen King's It was turned into a television miniseries it was considered a phenomenon.  People loved it.  My parents let me watch it as a mere six year old and I was traumatized.  This red haired clown with treacherous teeth that could morph into bright dead lights and ultimately a strange spider with seeming human arms terrified me.  I couldn't, for years, shake the images that this adaptation firmly rooted in my brain.  Sink drains, sewer systems and clowns became things of horror to me.

And yet, I was equally fascinated and enthralled with the story of It being my first exposure to the brilliant and creative mind of Stephen King.

Fast-forward 27 years.  It has returned.  (Side note: 27 years is also how long It basically hibernates in the novel after feasting on humans...intentional?) When I first started to hear rumblings of the film coming about, I was completely uninterested and had no desire to revisit the terrors Pennywise inflicted on my childhood.  However, after deciding to read the book, it felt necessary to see how the story that I ended up loving on the page would be brought to life on the screen in a new way.  It did take me quite awhile to fully delve in and give into the fear the story would inevitably incite, but I did, and I found that while Stephen King may be considered the king of horror, he is a masterful storyteller and creator of characters that stir empathy and deep affection in the reader.

I have slowly, over the course of the last year and a half, been warming to the works of King.  I cannot recommend highly enough his book, On Writing. It has become a piece I revisit often for writing wisdom that I think is applicable to any kind of writer, even students in the high school classroom.  I have read one another lengthy novel by King and am currently reading a third novel he has written with another horror writer Peter Straub.

It as a novel has a few controversies surrounding it, but before I address those, let me simply praise the wild imagination of its author.  King is genius when it comes to crafting these very lengthy plot lines that not only carry through a 1,000 page+ work, but also cross over into other novels seemingly effortlessly.  

What I loved about reading It was how often I found myself completely lost in the world of Derry and a part of the lives of Bill, Ben, Beverly, Stanley, Mike, Richie and Eddie.  I felt with them, I feared with them, I was surprised and horrified alongside them, and I fell in love with them as they fell in love with each other.

King's imaginative work also included some salacious, if not grotesque scenes that I genuinely feared coming to life on film, more than I feared the antics of Pennywise, the dancing clown.  But alas an R rating for the film justified in the cursing, murder of children and plain horror, forsook the sexual scenes that were downright uncomfortable in the novel.

I went into my first viewing of the film with mild trepidation of how it would work to shock and terrify.  But I mostly approached this movie with great delight to see how these beloved characters, this band of losers whom I had fallen in love with would translate from page to screen .  And in that regard, it did not disappoint, and because of that it felt less like the horror movie it is advertised as and more of a delightful story of friendship and how this group bonds through trauma. Truly, there are few other stories and characters that have impacted me the way the characters of It have.

These characters feel real and tangible.  When reading through their experiences as children and as adults, as far-fetched as they may seem in a true real-life experiential, I can relate way, King adroitly brings the reader right in with them to know and understand and ultimately empathize with everything they are going through.  Somehow, even the worst parts of humanity become understandable because of the way King weaves his words and invites the reader to experience every sensory detail in an up close and personal way.

Beyond the story and the characters themselves, there is nothing more compelling to me than when young actors can bring real, authentic emotions to life in film or television.  I think it is rare to see the natural exude among child actors, especially when called to deal with things in a mature manner rather than in a completely child like atmosphere. Often a child's performance feels very calculated and less instinctual.  Yet these young actors pull off the realistic reactions of fear, affection, and curiousity in a fully formed way for being such tender ages. 

Beyond the cast, this version of It was such a masterful adaptation of a large chunk of the novel.

The noteworthy scenes from the novel that felt so essential to see were brought to life better than I imagined them as a vivid reader.  I was so impressed that I would say the movie was just as good as the book, if not better in certain ways, which is so rare if not non-existent.

The film itself has stirred quite a buzz.  It seems that people are responding well and I would say for the work itself, for the cast, the screenwriters, the director and King, it is well deserved.

I look forward to discovering another story to film adaptation that is done just as well.  They are an infinitely rare breed.