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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Compassion

Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
                                                                                       Henri J.M. Nouwen
__________________________________


I believe that following Jesus is not a matter of adhering to a religion
It is not a matter of doctrine
It is not about rituals
It is not adherence to a code of conduct

It is about a way
a way of thinking
a way of seeing

it is about becoming awake to the Presence of the Sacred
which is inside each of us

it is about one’s heart
one’s mind
being so transformed by the presence of love

that one is driven to live a life which is marked primarily
by
compassion

following Jesus is about allowing the Spirit the freedom
to dance through our souls with such abandon
that we are caught up
ecstatically
in the God Movement

and forget
at least for brief moments
ourselves

it is about having our point of focus move
from money, power, and prestige
to people

with Jesus it was always about people
poor people, rich people
smug religious people,
rampant “sinners”
weak people and strong people

but always people
whom he saw with the eyes of compassion and love

thus it was he entered fully
into the “condition of being human”

he was with people in their joy, yes!
making wine at weddings….

but mostly he was with them in those ‘places of pain’
where fear, confusion, and anguish lived

he was with them
for them
utterly

and following him in his way
means we join him
fueled by Sacred Presence

as best we can

nothing more
nothing
less

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