Compassion equals total lack of greed.

The recent terrorist bombings in Moscow got me in a pretty foul mood. What possible purpose do they think this will accomplish? The Qur'an and most other religious texts teach of life being sacred and to embrace peace. To me terrorism is the opposite of these things, so how can a man become so deluded that he thinks he is fighting for God when he is the embodiment of everything God stands against?
I had the gall to spurt my frustration over facebook and was given a swift lesson in compassion. I ended up thinking back to a sermon quote I had heard "I never met a person who didn't matter to God"
If God loves all of us equally then who am I to think that all terrorists are spawn of Satan and deserve the eternity they have set themselves on? As a christian my mindset should be one of "everyone has the opportunity to change" and "Satan is the enemy not the people he has deceived".
Isn't Satan malicious? Using religion as the vehicle through which he turns Gods people against each other? To fight him we have to change our pattern of behaviour from hating those who oppose us ( which is our natural response) and actually do what God commands, which is love your enemies and do good to those that wrong you. If everyone cared as much for the stranger sitting beside them as they did for themselves then the world would be perfect.
I believe greed is the primary reason that the world is drowning in crap. I must have more! so I will start a war; drain the earth of its resources without a thought for future consequences; murder someone for a fleeting trinket, abort my baby because to me it is an inconvenience rather than a blessing given by God; kill animals for their skin without thought for the companionship that God created them for; ignore the starving masses letting cows and rats roam the street and destroy 30% of the grain that would feed the entire poor populace of India twice over; refuse to send cheap drugs to Africa that would prevent babies being born with aids passed on from their mothers because I want to live in a mansion not a regular house; get into a position of power in a country not for the people in the country but to line my pockets for the term I am elected; keep the most precious gift we have been given, that never runs out and never diminishes no matter how many times you share it, from people around us because we care more about our self image than we do about the eternity of our friends...
Yes we must tell people the gospel (literal translation: the good news) but we must also live the gospel which is that Christ died for ALL of us. This includes terrorists, your best friend, the murderer with the abusive upbringing who is rotting in jail and your own children. If we are to be Christians we must believe this and in believing this we must also love everyone. The 10 commandments are summed up with just two: Love God with everything you are and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

1 John 4:8

God Is Love

 ^7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 

So what are we going to do about it? I believe if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Just as not saying anything when the truth is needed is still lying, not doing anything when the world is dying is batting for the wrong team.

 ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. -James 2  

Mother Teresa once paraphrased Jesus saying, "At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me food  to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in’. This is Christ in disguise.'"

Being Christ to the world means not being greedy. This is now my daily challenge. For a good example of how good deeds work I would suggest watching the movie 'Pay it forward.' 


Cook someone a meal. Give those clothes you never wear away to the salvation army. Give regularly to a charity. Sponsor a child. Offer to clean someones house for them. 


To sum up. Just be a good friend. We have the best friend we could ever ask for. Why not follow his example and share him with the world?

Respecting Weakness

Freedom Camping. Basically this is making a choice to go somewhere that has little to no modern conveniences and actually enjoying yourself. I had my first experience freedom camping over new years. Never before have I been in a tent when it rained so hard; reacted quite so much to sand fly bites; enjoyed myself so thoroughly around a camp fire; actually had a campfire. It was quite something.

So. What did I learn from it? How to relax maybe. But mainly conflict resolution. The actual conflict happened before we went away. Both my husband and one of my best friends have oldest child tendencies. Not just that but they are both "aggressive firstborns". When it came to organisation they both knew exactly what they wanted and it was not the same thing.

The seeming disagreement was over whether or not to take a wash up basin. It sounded silly to me, both now and at the time, however I figured it was just a scapegoat for an underlying issue. In typical "compliant firstborn" style I tried to mediate and offer a temporary solution. The girls would organise the food and homey touches. The boys could organise travel and where to camp and all the functional things. It didn't fix the problem but it was enough to get one firstborn out of the house to go play snooker while me and the other did our girl thing and sorted out food. It didnt however prevent a last "don't let things get excessive" speech before his departure.

I had originally hoped to confront the situation when my husband returned but I decided to let him look at the list and hopefully he would agree it was reasonable and I could get on and enjoy the weekend.
Alas it was not to be. He was force fed our list and told it was non negotiable. Having his input and control taken away was enough to put him over the edge no matter how reasonable the list. He graciously held back until the other half of our camping party had left.

He made a valid point during his tirade. "A man will bend over backwards for only two people. His mother, and any girl under the age of 10. Anyone else has to earn his respect". Unfortunately my friend was neither his mother nor a preadolescent girl. Even though she was engaged to his older brother, in his mind she had simply come into his family and decreed how things were to be done without even attempting to be sympathetic to the family etiquette, so his respect meter was plummeting towards zero. And with that my list was slapped forcefully down on my leg. Suddenly I flipped back to life-before-the-divorce mode. I tuned out to the fact he was ranting about something totally unrelated to me. I simply saw anger aimed at me and took it personally. I froze and when the dialogue stopped I quickly excused myself from the room before any weakness could be shown. I came out of my haze to find myself sitting in the hallway with his mother giving me a hug.

When He had cooled off he came out to see where I had run off too. This was not in keeping with my traditional conflict resolution protocol when growing up, which involved washing my face in cold water and returning to the room like nothing had happened. It seems my husband it not a fan of rugs and the stuff that is under them. He responded to the situation in true top-layer-only style. "I'm sorry for hating on your friend". I told him I didn't care how much he got angry with my friends as long as it wasn't me he took it out on and that I no longer wanted to go camping for fear of walking on eggshells all weekend. I wanted to enjoy myself not be constantly wary of a potential explosion that would involve me haing to take sides.
He explained how he felt re being told he had no say in his own house and that I hadn't defended him. I explained that I never used to have to defend him as he was always the laid back, go-with-the-flow one out of the two of us. Maybe I should have taken his side because even if his point about not taking the wash basin was not really something I agreed with, his underlying need to be respected in his own house was something I think he had every right to expect.
He agreed that for the weekend he would suck it up and let me enjoy myself. Once a situation calms down its easier to see that small things are not the real reason for some arguments and perhaps weren't worth getting worked up about. But in the end I am glad we had the talk even if it took me realising I still have issues with my father and freaking out to make it happen.

I have learnt the difference between staying quiet out of fear and staying quiet out of respect for my husband. This verse has, to me, always meant "women are inferior and God is happy if you just keep your mouth shut and do what you're told". But now I know that it means live in such a way that you are a positive influence on your husband. Don't just be a door mat but rather be the servant heart that all christians are called to be. And never forget that you have the exact same value as your husband in God's eyes and that you should be treated with respect by your husband.

1 Peter 3

Wives and Husbands

 ¹ In the same way, you wives should yield to your husbands. Then, if some husbands do not obey God's teaching, they will be persuaded to believe without anyone's saying a word to them. They will be persuaded by the way their wives live.² Your husbands will see the pure lives you live with your respect for God.³ It is not fancy hair, gold jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful.⁴ No, your beauty should come from within you—the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that will never be destroyed and is very precious to God.⁵ In this same way the holy women who lived long ago and followed God made themselves beautiful, yielding to their own husbands.⁶ Sarah obeyed Abraham, her husband, and called him her master. And you women are true children of Sarah if you always do what is right and are not afraid.

 ⁷ In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way, since they are weaker than you. Show them respect, because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace that gives true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers.