3) Education - You know, I always tell my friends that one of the reasons why I hate my glasses has to be when I'm in professional circles. The reason is really simple: People already formulate the idea that I must be highly educated and that I think I'm better. Just from wearing glasses! I know fellow blind bats in glasses know this struggle too well. Once they do that, socialising is so hard because now I have to convince them I'm not who they think I am. And honestly speaking, it's not everyday that I have the energy. We repel those who we think rank higher than us academically and professionally. The opposite is also bad, undermining those we deem lower than us. It has gotten so bad that we don't introduce preachers by their names and surname anymore, we bring in their academic records as if to say the gospel they carry must be better than those who are not so academically achieved. What skewed view!
4) Life experiences and personality - I suffer from this one quite a lot. As you browse through this book, I'm sure you pick up that I'm very bubbly and talkative. Some days it doesn't help me at all, people feel as though I should be something else. Funny enough, with the extra introvert ones, they have a problem with that too. In this world, we class people according to their personalities and we shun mingling with them because they are not like us. Who says they should be? I have very quiet friends and you would be shocked how we get along, funny, we literally gel. Peanut butter and jam kind of combo! I used to get judged over my life experience of growing up with no father. Reason being, I never used to pretend, I openly admitted that I did not like him and that I had not forgiven him yet. I remember being labelled a weak Christian that treasures sin because I was honest with my feelings. If someone used to stay with a boyfriend before they knew Christ, people don't even want to associate with them. We deem their experiences too dark for us who walk with Jesus. Did Jesus not speak to Mary, a well known sinner? Did the Pharisees not say about him, "He eats with sinners."
5) Family of origin - I remember meeting a lady who was very rude to me while I was new in a particular church. Upon asking, I discovered she came from a family that was well known in the Adventist circles. I distinctly asked the person who told me, "So does that give her a right to act like the church belongs to her family?" We tip toe around people whose families are well known or rich, we don't even want to invite them to our churches. Sometimes we pay no attention because someone comes from a family of poverty. Are we not losing out on opportunities to extend compassion to our neighbours? Look, even the rich don't have everything. The suicidal and depression statistics will prove to you.
6) Political views - People ignoring those who don't support the same political party as theirs. It looks small and funny until you find 2 men who speak unkindly to each other because of politics.
7) Faith - This is the greatest culprit, by far the greatest filter we use. We view neighbours based on how different their faith is from ours. Even when they speak about God, our ears won't listen because they are different from us.
Jesus performed most if not all of His miracles because of His compassion for humanity. Though He was a Jew, that did not keep Him from interacting with non-Jews. It did not stop Him from alleviating pain where it abounded. He spoke to a Samaritan woman because for Him, it was bigger that she be saved than that she was with someone else's husband.
For as long as we hold on to prejudices and worldviews that supersede the object of our life, which is the commission, we will not mingle with people the way Christ did. The quote from EG White says, "He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs..." Jesus was and still is a Master driven by compassion for human beings and that's who we also ought to be. Here are a few texts that will show you evidence of the compassion of Christ: Matthew 18:33; Matthew 20:34; Mark 8:2; Luke 7:13; Matthew 9:36; Matthew 14:14; Mark 1:41
Remember the last time you cooked some relish? What did you do to the salt and herbs? I'd love to assume you poured them out into the relish because that is really the logical thing to do, right? I can't remember seeing someone pouring their relish into a salt container. It's just really funny how when Jesus says we are the salt of the earth, we don't really take Him at His word and do the work of the salt. Failure to live out the gospel makes us salt that just won't come out of the container. Salt goes out of the container and into the pot and gives it flavour. It mixes with the relish and the taste says that salt is present here. Why then are we sitting in the container and waiting for the relish to jump in and get some flavour? We sit in our churches and homes and hope that somehow people will come to Jesus. It is us who must go call them to the Saviour. We must distribute our flavour to the ends of the earth.
When was the last time you looked at your neighbour and felt a deep yearning for them to know that Jesus really loves them? When last did it pierce your heart that your neighbour might be eternally lost? When you read in Revelation 14:11, it echoes the loud message that those who have not chosen Christ will be lost forever and ever. That's a sobering thought. Yet, thousands around us are dying without Christ and we are too busy within church walls arguing about the most bizarre things. Talk about women ordination, head covering for women who preach or stand in front of the congregation, to eat or not to eat meat in the church yard and so many more. What is your priority? What's more important, that an elder eats meat or that you made the visitors at church feel like coming back the next week? Look, the health message has its place and I am in no way undermining it. The simple point is to prioritise the salvation of man above all. As they get to know Jesus, He will convict them and teaching will have its place. It takes humility to do this. We always have to remind ourselves that we are not the standard that our neighbours should live by, that we are not the rescue team either or experts, because we are on equal footing under God's overarching authority. Christ is the standard, Christ is the rescue and expert. Our job is to tell them about Him and He will work in them.
Chapter Two - He had compassion, so should we.
Start from the beginning
