Good morning…
“I just read this devotional and it makes me think of our relationship,” I wrote to LaTonya Gates, founder and director of PAWkids, and her compassionate daughter, Larenzia. “So much growth, so much God.”
I forwarded to them the challenging wisdom below.
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DAILY MEDITATION | JUNE 18, 2022 – Henri Nouwen
Compassionate Solidarity
When we think about the people who have given us hope and have increased the strength of our soul, we might discover that they were not advice givers, warners, or moralists, but the few who were able to articulate in words and actions the human condition in which we participate and who encouraged us to face the realities of life. . . . Those who do not run away from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. The paradox indeed is that the beginning of healing is in the solidarity with the pain. In our solution-oriented society it is more important than ever to realize that wanting to alleviate pain without sharing it is like wanting to save a child from a burning house without the risk of being hurt. It is in solitude that this compassionate solidarity takes its shape.
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“Absolutely beautiful,” LaTonya replied.
“Wanting to alleviate pain without sharing it is like wanting to save a child from a burning house without the risk of being hurt.” What a sobering dilemma. We don’t want to risk being hurt and, at the same time, we see so many of God’s children in pain, pain we yearn to help alleviate. “The paradox indeed is that the beginning of healing (for all of us, those touching and those being touched) is in the solidarity with the pain.”
This is exactly what Jesus did, right? Leaving his home in heaven, he stepped into the burning house of humanity. And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us (John 1:14a, AMPC). Jesus did not run away from our pain, but stepped close with compassion, touching sufferers tenderly, bringing healing and new strength.
God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. Now each of us who follow Jesus, we …instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us (Romans 8:3-4, MSG).
In deep, deep solitude and solidarity with the Spirit, the compassion of the living Christ continues to take shape in us. Right now, might each of us privately ponder: “Lord, whose pain might I share today, in some big or tiny way?”
…Sue…
P.S. What a great response to our PAWkids Father’s Day project. Because of our compassionate solidarity, one young family will more comfortably settle into their own apartment within eyesight of the PAWkids campus. Half of the donations we will give in a gift card, and the other half we will save in a fund to regularly take this young mom-of-three to Good Samaritan Health Center (for affordable food from their organic garden) and Goodwill (for shoes, clothes, toys and home goods) to help her money creatively stretch.
