Each week, we’ll feature a theme and a challenge during worship. You’ll hear a story from Jesus’ life and a message about it during worship. We’ll give you a post-it note with the theme and challenge to take home or stick on your dashboard so you won’t forget. For even more information, click here.
This site will be updated with the theme and challenge, and we’ll also give you a reflection, some explanation about the practice, additional ideas to try, and other resources to help you go deeper.
But most importantly, we’ll be asking you in the comments section to tell your story! Each week, after you complete your challenge, come back here and write a comment about how it went.
The Practices Challenge begins the week of July 10/11. Are you ready?
The word “compassion” has always appealed to me. I think this is partly due to my belief that we’re all interconnected through our common humanity, feelings and experiences and, most importantly, creation by God. Given this interconnectedness, it’s difficult not to have feelings of compassion toward other people.
Certainly, we were all moved with compassion (and, many to action) by the earthquake in Haiti, the hurricane in New Orleans, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and the 9/11 attacks. But how do we show compassion in our ordinary, day-to-day lives, especially when we’re busy, distracted, and always watching the clock?
I suggest that if we’re going to be compassionate, we must be mindful. We have to look for opportunities to share in the suffering of others, to show them sympathy and mercy, to give them aid or support. Personally, I find that my workplace provides me with numerous chances to “practice” compassion. When I’m mindful (about which I have to be intentional!), I try to be aware of what’s going on in the lives of my colleagues. A single mother has ongoing challenges in raising her teenage son, who has ADHD; one man had three teeth extracted late last week; another man lost his mother several months ago. These are all opportunities to reach out, to be present and to, albeit in a “little way,” show compassion.
In commenting on A Collect for the Ministry in the book, “A Year of Days with the Book of Common Prayer,” Bishop Edmond Lee Browning stated that, “We are here for one another.” I can’t think of a better reason to practice the virtue of compassion!