Post from July 16 "New Place, Same Old Blog"


Picture     I know I know!!  Nobody likes change.  Well, I love change.  So if I love change that makes me nobody, and nobody is perfect.  So I guess that makes me . . . can't say it!    I didn't want to continue to post on Zambian Panda, since I am no longer in Zambia.  However, when we return to Mapanza I will go back to Zambian Panda.  Why blog at all you ask?  Some of the folks at New Day Orphanage (henceforth known as NDO) asked that I continue to write for the entertainment value.  So I am happy to oblige.

     Why do some people get involved in missions and some don't?  Some folks talk about going and don't.  Some don't even talk about going or even support/acknowledge those who have served on mission.  A similar question would be, "Why is it that only 10%  of a church membership does 99% of the work in the church?"
     Although the premise of meeting with Albert Kalenga  daily at NDO was to study a particular passage of Scripture or topic, questions he asked often took us on wide ranging rabbit trails usually with a fuzzy hare at the end of the trail.  Numerous time those "wild hares" were birthed in vocabulary and its definition.  As a student of vocabulary, and word origins (Etymology), I am quite sure some trails were longer than necessary.
    On one occasion I was describing to Kalenga the difference in my mind between sympathy, empathy and compassion.  At the heart of my monologue on these three words was the premise that only compassion involved action.  In Scripture when compassion is used as a noun (e.g. to have compassion on someone), that person was moved to action.  People who are compassionate are not idle.  I think of compassion as sympathy or empathy so strong that you are compelled to take action.
     So who goes on mission trips or supports others going on mission trips?  Those who are compassionate.  You can feel sorry for someone (sympathy) or identify with how someone feels (empathy), but only if you are moved to action does it become compassion (remember I said this is the difference  in my mind.  We are very often very often sympathetic or empathize with those who are without Christ, but are we compassionate?  When I read the Great Commission, I hear Jesus telling us to be compassionate about the lost, because He gives us actions to take:  Go, Make, Baptize and Teach.  He doesn't just ask us to feel sorry for them.
     Interestingly I was talking to Lynne about this blog post this morning, and she asked me to read it to her.  She then told me about what she had read in Isaiah 58.  It rang very true when I read it, in the context of our discussion.  Let me leave you with the challenge to consider the difference between empathy, sympathy and compassion, and the truth revealed by God in Isaiah 58.  TTFN.     

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