Reflection for February 6, 2015

"But whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life.- be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others, carping criticism frustration at other's blindness, a sense of spiritual superiority, a gnawing hunger of vindication-I am alienated from my true self."(Reflections for Ragamuffins February 6)

I try very hard to not react in these ways when dealing with other people.  No matter how much they may be annoying me I try to use a more compassionate response to them.  I do this because it is how I'd want to be treated when I may be that annoying human being.

I also know that when I encounter people acting in those ways, I don't really wish to be around them, and I find it very hard to take what they are saying seriously.  Perhaps it comes from the act that I know that these stances are a cover for a much deeper problem.  The person they are more likely at war with is themselves.

I'm reminded of the passage where Jonah says he's angry enough to die, over a bush no less.  And God points out that the way of truly being like him is not the anger but the compassion.  And because I've been treated compassionately by God, that is what truly being me is about.

Blessings,
Ed