Suffering Unit: The Great Conversation

"A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair."

I love this quote. I think that it puts quite simply the essence of what it means to be a follower of Christ. The phrase about holding God and man in one thought reminds me to treat the people around me in a way that reflects the fact that I am aiming to live for Christ, so my actions towards others should be lived out in regards to Christ and my faith. I feel that so often we get caught up in our own struggles and trials that we neglect to suffer along with others and if we would just make ourselves vulnerable to the pain all around us then we would begin to have a heart that is broken for others in much of the same way that Christs heart is broken for us. There's a line in a song that says "break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your kingdoms cause..." I feel like we just need to step back and look at the circumstances of those around us and our own circumstances through Christs eyes. Finally, in the last lines he says that our greatest strength is in love and defiance of despair. Do we love those around us as Christ has loved us? Do I Defy despair? Sometimes maybe, but does that defiance break me enough to change me? I wish that I could say it did. Its my prayer that God would really open my eyes and help me see the things that should bother me, the things that should break my heart and the situations in which i need to be love to people who are hurting.

Psalm 8:3-6

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet: