Love & Compassion

I may catch some heat for this but I have a responsibility to myself and God to write about what I feel I’m being pressed to write about. Lately I've really been exposed to the harshness of Christianity, yes that’s right I said it. In a collection of people who claim to be "Followers of Christ" and "Christ-like" why does there seem to be so much judging, lack of compassion and love? In John 13:34 & 35 Jesus tells His disciples, "I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” So if this is how "All people" will know we are His disciples and if we are not doing this; then what exactly are we doing ? We debate and argue to prove our points with scripture and tell everyone exactly what they are doing wrong but we are doing it with the wrong motives; where’s the love in something like that? If you are not doing it out of love and are leaving this out of the equation; you're missing an important key. (See 1 Corinthians 13:2)

Now I’m not pointing fingers at anybody because I've done this myself from time to time. Looking back I can see that more often than not this is done purely out of ignorance. A lot of people get angry when you start throwing that word around but by definition it simply means,"Lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular.” We get angry at a select group of people and past judgment on them and we do this all out of ignorance. I mean if we truly knew what it was like to wrestle with those same demons that they deal with day in and day out maybe we wouldn't be so quick to write them off as hypocritical. If we could truly feel the pangs of lust, or felt the yearnings of alcoholism, or if we could actually walk a mile in the lonely shoes of that single Mom with three kids that are depending on her to put food on the table, then maybe just maybe we’d be able to show a fraction of that same compassion & love that Jesus showed.

Take Care & God Bless

-E