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“I’m better than you!”… “No you’re not!!”
Compassion was not something that I was very good at for a lot of my life. In fact it was not until I was going through a divorce about ten years ago that God showed me all about compassion, as well as a few other things. Until that time I didn’t have the heart for understanding of how a divorce could tear apart people and cause them, and their kids, to do and say things that were not healthy at all. God saw to it that I learned through that experience. He began to shape and mold my heart for people, to give me compassion for them, and not just for people going through divorces. After I married my gift from God, God has grown me in so many other ways through the “wonderful” things He has brought into our lives in the past 5 and a half years of marriage. Through major illnesses, court cases, custody issues and lots of other life events, God has taught me more compassion for others. I listen now more than I talk. I keep my mouth closed more now, believe it or not, and my ears open more.
Because I had never experienced divorce, I used to think that I was “better” than others that had been divorced. No, I would never have said that aloud but it was in my mind, my thoughts. God has shown me over and over that if we are baptized in Christ then we are one with other believers in Christ. If we are one with other believers then we are all members of the same body, we are all important, every one of us. None of us is more important, or “better” than another, just like no part of the body is more important than another.
Galations 3:27, 28 says “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Because we are one body and every one of us is important within that body, then we should all suffer when a part of the body suffers and rejoice when part of the body rejoices. We are all in this together… and if we don’t suffer or rejoice with others… then are we really in the body at all or are we just fooling ourselves?
Jill what you say is so true. I am planning on suffering today will you come too? Maybe that wouldn’t be possible because I am going with my 33 third graders overnight to Desoto Caverns in Al. We will sleep in the cave in tents on the ground thus the suffering. I know you can’t come, we don’t have enough room in our tents but would you pray? Please pray for safty, fun, and some sleep. When I come back and take a nap tomorrow afternoon I will rejoice so you could rejoice with me then. I do want to give God praise for the change in the weather forcast. It was suppose to rain today and instead it rained last night and it will rain tomorrow, This is a big answer to prayer.
Dear Penny,
I hope you read this before you go. I was a Girl Scout leader and a Christian Girl Scout Leader (Pioneer Girls) for many years. I will be praying for you and your third graders through out the day today and tomorrow. I will be praying for traveling mercies and God’s protection over all of you. Also being on a field trip can help you all grow closer together. This is also a perfect time to grow closer to God. How can we ever look at His magnificent work and believe in evolution I will never understand. So I will be praying that He will bring your third graders closer to Him through what He created. May His peace and His mercy and His grace be with you and your class (especially today and tomorrow).
Thanks, Jill for sharing your heart. I have enjoyed getting to know you in Bible Study this year. You have definitely added another level of wisdom for all of us. You are so right to point out these truths. I think we can all be reminded that we are all a part of the same body — the body of Christ. I know I need to hear it regularly. Thank you, again. See you in a few….:-)
Jill … thanks for sharing in a very vulnerable, open way. This kind of writing and though processing on Feedoneanother.com is what makes this good. Honesty. Raw-ness. Authenticity.
For me, the analogy of the BODY is not so much about equality as it is one-ness — and I DO think there is a difference. Equality can still emphasize me and my rights.. One-ness is all about Jesus and how he supernaturally molds us into one body. His body. There can be necessary distinction and celebrated diversity, but no division. THAT is the body of Christ.
May we all move easily and rhythmically together. More on Sunday…
Thanks again Jill. Blessings on you and Dan.
Oops! My husband,(Eddie) obviously has not had the privilege of getting to know you in Bible Study.
He was the last one to leave a comment on here. The above comment came from me, Mary Anthony. Sorry!!!!!!
I love the whole piece… especially the part where you shared your pre-divorce feelings about others in that same situation. Often times we get up on our high horse about life choices or beliefs and it fogs our vision of being ONE body. Having kids has taught me to ‘never say never’ as I have eaten my words many times in the last four years.
AWESOME ending line. What a perfect way to end the devotional….when we do not suffer and rejoice with others, I think we are just fooling ourselves if we think we are part of the same body at that time. As we’ve discussed in previous submissions this week, when one part suffers or goes MIA, the rest of the body feels it. Period.
“Compassion was not something that I was very good at for a lot of my life.”
It is great to meet another NCA Non Compassionate Anonymous. Jill we must of been on a similar time line with God. My awakening to compassion took place about 12 years ago.(no details at this time) I never had much of a problem with the rejoicing part of that verse but to suffer with those that are hurting,I think not. They were there because of a fault of there own. O what a donkey I was. It is so gracious of God to change our lives. What an honor it is to suffer with others. Thanks Jill for your openness and being a Jesus Freak.
Jill, thank you so much for sharing! What you are talking about is exactly what I love about our community group. We all have our own strengths, we have all had our own good and bad life experiences, and we all are “in process” in our relationship with God. It doesn’t matter how different we are, what matters is that we love each other dearly, we grow from each other, we cry and laugh together, and we pursue God together. God was so smart (I mean He is God and all) when He called us to be a part of the body of Christ because He knows how much we need each other (even with all of our quirks).
A friend and I were talking about the movie Twilight (yes, the vampire movie) last night. Without spoiling it, the main character goes through a series of very difficult and painful experiences after meeting the love of her live, Edward (yes, a vampire). There’s a point in the movie where she says something like, “Even though all of this has happened, I don’t regret any decisions I’ve made because they led me to Edward.” My friend and I were talking about how we see the parallel in that line into our own journey’s with the Lord. Whether it’s been sin, or suffering, or surrender, or dying to myself, it’s led me closer to the Love of my life. It’s so worth it for Jesus. He is so worth it.
Isn’t it great to know that we are not shut out of God’s grace due to life’s happenings? Not only are we not shut out, but we are given the opportunity to love and understand those around us more through our own trials.
Funny story: I was talking to some friends last night and we were discussing what we all had planned for the evening. When it came to me, I said that I was going to “group”. In response, a friend said to me “it is about time you got some help with your issues”. In a way, she was right, I do get help with my issues at my community group. I can also help others.
Thanks Jill…WOW…I really appreciate your transparency on this…it really helped clarify something that sits at the core of who I am today. You see, I too have been signficantly impacted by divorce…my parents’ divorce. As you referenced above, their divorce, the years of custody battles, and (in my case) the difficult step-parent dynamics, “tore apart” my life and the lives of my 3 siblings. What should have been years of innocence (like what Brittany and I are trying to provide for Anna Kathryn and Meredith), were not. Instead, they were marked with a great deal of pain, confusion, and darkness…weighing very heavily on my head and heart – we didn’t have the “emotional toolkit” to deal with what was going on in our lives. But thankfully, for me, God intervened in my life and brought me to a very real relationship with Him when I was quite young.
And this is where you helped me understand the “how” He did that for me in a way that I hadn’t been able to put my finger on as specifically as I can now. In addition to His healing, life-peace-giving Spirit, it was through others that knew Him closely that showed me His love and provided me some sense of stability – primarily a select few parents of friends of mine and another young couple that were my Sunday School teachers. They were Christ to me. Unfortunately, that was not the case with my siblings – and they are still playing the roles they played back then and repeating some of what was modeled to us in our parents. My older sister is still “fighting” for everyone else, ignoring how it all affected her (she was alwyas trying to protect her 3 younger siblings). My older brother is still stuffing what happened and essentially repeated everything in his own (first) marriage and as a father. And my younger sister is seemingly oblivious to it all. So I still struggle with the “why” He came to my rescue and not theirs, but you helped me better understand the “how”…through others showing me Christ’s love…playing their part in the body of Christ.
Again, WOW…thank you. Clearly you touched on something pretty significant in my life – as is evidenced by my pouring all the above out for the world to see. Now I can pray more specifically for my siblings…for others to come into their lives (besides/in addition to Brittany and me) to be Christ to them. It’s also given me greater clarity and passion to play my part for those He puts in my life. Thank you.
Jill thank you for sharing from your heart in today’s scripture. How amazing is our God to think how He was loving you through your pain; caring for you and all the time growing you into the wonderful compassionate person you have become!
I loved how you ended your thoughts today asking the question are we all in this together or are we just fooling ourselves?Reminds me of the lyrics to a song…
And you’re fooling yourself if you don’t believe it
You’re killing yourself if you don’t believe it
-Styx
Maybe if we are not suffering, honoring, rejoicing with all members of the body then we are fooling ourselves and it is killing the kind of oneness that God wants for us?
Thanks Jill for feeding us today. It was awesome.
Thanks everyone else for the great additional material.
Jill, as always you know how to touch people. I cannot imagine you as not being compassionate but then again I did not know you back then. I was always a compassionate person. I was
always the one who took up for and felt sorry for the kid who always got picked on in school. At home I was the one getting ridiculed so I could relate to those kids. Its hard to relate to things we don’t understand. Divorce used to be such a rare
thing so anyone who was divorced was kind of shunned or outcast because people didn’t know how to relate to them. Now it is so common that its hard for those of us that haven’t been divorced to relate to those who are.Funny how it works.
Just because people are different and have had different or unusual experiences and how they deal with them doesn’t make them any less of a person(unless they deliberaely hurt someone).We have to try to put ourselves in their situation in order to have the compassion that God wants us to have for others.