It would seem to me that the compassion concept could be broken down to even simpler parts – active and passive.

Active compassion begin the “moving” and passive being the “feeling”.

Looking at the etymology of the word in latin, com means “together” and of course passion means “to suffer” – both roots implying an active and passive form.

Taking the thought further it seems to me that the active part is associated with giving, and the passive part receiving… we come together by giving our time, resources, and emotions in a way that benefits the individual, group, or cause we feel empathy for. As we give, we also receive by ’syncing’ our emotions with the same, thereby also partaking in the suffering.

Kind simple I guess…

And I second that, when are you going to write a book? I’m pretty sure it would make the best sellers list Haha. Love you!

Babe- you are wonderful….I love you:)

The thought of parables not only being of personal significance but of ecclesiastical significance just opens up so many things… I’ve been wondering lately how we as the church for some reason just got off track on living in God’s promises and a lot of the time it just seems like as a people we’re in this land of desolation… We even feel like we belong there simply because we’re there and God hasn’t shown up in the clouds to rescue us from not listening to Him.

It seems that just like Israel (the country not me – I NEVER do this!) we have this impressive gift of being just plain stupid – when the greatest riches in the world are offered to us, we respond with something off-key like “Well, I’ve got other things I need to get done right now but I’ll go read my bible and worship a Holy God and watch His glory break though in my life… Some other time.”

But then we get left empty because we’re detached, broken, empty… And wonder how we got there. Which is a whole different comment in itself. And then we come back to God and think that for some reason what God says is actually for someone else… And then if he does choose to bless us, we restrict him by saying, “I’m not worthy to eat at the palace, I’ve got this really great gelatinous glop waiting for me at home, I’m good.”

But then if we just let God be God and expectantly hope for Him to do things greater than we can do (again, a whole other comment)… He just runs up and tackles us because He’s just that crazy about us; he’s absolutely ecstatic and he’s looking at the horizon hollerin’ like a hillbilly, “MY BOY’S COMIN’ BACK! WE’RE HAVIN’ A PARTY!” And if we just let Him do what He wants, all of a sudden, I mean out of nowhere, I mean like “BAM!”, He overtakes and overcomes everything in sight! Everything just falls into His order and if you just start looking around, His hand is everywhere…

We’ve got things so backwards… Not even kidding!