Trying

[ Suffering for Doing Good ] Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8

This verse finds me trying in two senses. Firstly, I am constantly trying to live out these wise and inspired words, and secondly, I sometimes find them ‘trying’ because I don’t always reach the mark and fall short. But as Paul writes in Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” So, we should never give up trying to be more Christlike as Paul says. Peter takes the theme and says we should be more….

Like minded, suggesting that we need to treat our brothers and sisters with the same care that they treat us. With respect and due care. Our churches would always be more welcoming and friendly if we were all working to the same goal, and we did not have the hierarchy of self appointed leaders. There is no room for pride in a like minded group.

Sympathetic churches show the heart of Jesus in the community. It takes a real Christian to show true and genuine sympathy for the downtrodden, forgotten homeless people who live on the streets. It is easier to forget or ignore these people, but we are commanded to sympathise with their lives and lifestyles. They may not behave or look like the clean, respected members who fill our pews, but we cannot distance ourselves from them, or their needs.

Love one another tells me the highest calling we need to have for our fellow Christians. When we grasp the fact that God IS love, then it follows that we must show that same Christlike love to our brothers and sisters. Peter doesn’t say this because it’s easy, because as the old saying goes, “It’s hard to love the unlovely”, but we are commanded to, so we must. Not a halfhearted ‘like’, but a full blown selfless Christian agape love.

Be compassionate and show it. This is practical and unmistakeable. When we are compassionate, the world can see it, and then know for certain that we mean to share the love we have for each other, with them too. The combination of love and compassion is contagious, and shows the world we are serious about their salvation too. We think their soul is worth saving for eternity.

Humble. In one small word, we encapsulate the hardest thing for us to do as Christians. Oh we say we are not proud, but we fail the test when we think, no one else can do this job like me. Or, I have been helping to run this church all my life, so I know all about the needs better than everyone else. Or again, where would they be without my tithes or offerings? The burden on my shoulders is great, but I still think I am humble. Really? Humility is elusive. When we actively believe we have achieved humility, it’s at that point we have lost it! I think Peter left this command to the last because without it, we become a sham, and the world can see through a phoney with no trouble.

Anger

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Ephesians 4:26

Did you ever read the ‘Mr Men’ stories by Roger Hargreaves to your children? They all had a characteristic which made it easy to use as a moral which could be applied. Among all the little men was Mr Angry, and he got angry at just about everything, everyone, all the time, to the point it became ridiculous. By the end of the story you had lost any sympathy you might have had for the poor wee man. He overplayed his flaw to the point of losing his friends, even his closest pals! It seems some adults were never introduced to this Mr Men character and any lessons that might have been learned are lost. But he does have a (not so) secret following!

The world is a very angry place, or to be more accurate, the world has too many angry people. Have you watched the news on TV, or caught a bulletin on the radio? It can’t have escaped your attention that we live among a very angry people. Did you watch the anger displayed at the US Republican and Democratic Conventions? After recent shootings in the USA, the streets are filled with angries. It happens every time people are mown down unnecessary, and it does not matter their colour. Closer to home, the ‘gentler politics’ promised melts away quickly when tested by tough times, or a leadership battle, or sport, or a referendum held in the UK and in Scotland. Division makes people angry, and feeling that you don’t count makes these faceless people very angry indeed.

Who or what gets you angry? I suggest anger mainly rises inside with those who are closest to you. Your family, your government, your environment, your team, and yes even your spouse. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t get your dander up (as my wise Dad used to say). Passion makes for heightened emotions, feelings, and that includes anger. It is significant that the apostle doesn’t say we shouldn’t get angry. We know that Jesus was angry enough to clear out the Temple Courts of money changers and traders. When we fall prey to anger, and let’s face it, we all get angry, there are a couple of golden rules. The first one is not to allow your anger lead to sin. That could include the sin of exaggeration to make a point, impatience, arrogance, belittling someone, or shouting them down. These are sins to be avoided, so when you are angry ‘don’t give the devil a foothold’ as the apostle continues in verse 27.

The bit that is hardest, especially with family, and maybe your spouse whom you might love and get angry with in equal measure, is not ending the day holding on to your anger. None of it. Zilch, nada, nil! There is an old hit song which has the words, “The best part of breaking up, is when you’re making up”. Not quite the same, but you get my drift. How good is that feeling when you say sorry, and are forgiven? It’s like that with our Heavenly Father too. We get angry with Him and blame Him for just about everything, but when we say sorry and mean it, there is no better feeling this side of heaven than His forgiveness. Trust me! So, take care with your anger on earth, and be more than careful to say sorry to God for the anger you have felt towards Him, and receive His forgiveness which leads to salvation and confirms His presence. Now that’s a sure way to achieve heaven on earth, before we get there.

Understanding

It’s another word that trips off the tongue, and I accept for the most part used with good intention. If you want to know how to sympathise with, or understand another you have to ‘walk a mile in his moccasins’ as the old American Indian saying goes, and how simple and true.

I believe we all want to receive kind words of understanding and empathy from our friends, but true understanding comes at a cost. If you really want to know how someone feels, or what they are going through, it is best that you have walked that road yourself. Sometimes, happily, those tough times have not been ours to endure. We can thank God for preserving us from certain trials that have been placed on others. We may sympathise in good heart, but we cannot truly understand.

I was privileged to meet a Godly lady who had suffered a life threatening stroke some 13 years ago, and her road back to some kind of life has been slow, deliberate and hard beyond my understanding. Her face shone with the love of God, but she still does not have control of most of her body. I was humbled to be in her company. I would have loved to be able to say to her and her loving husband, ‘I understand what you are going through’, but I couldn’t. With God’s grace I may be able to sympathise, but I cannot fully understand. To pretend otherwise is an affront to the Spirit of God that lives in her, and would also be an embarrassment on a human level.

Let us use our words carefully, and take extra care as we meet others who have problems to carry, which we do not. I have found that the strongest witness comes from the one who suffers, and there is nothing I can say that helps. My last thought is this: If you have been through a difficult time, or have suffered a serious health issue, you are in a unique and special place to use those experiences to help others who are going through that same valley. Maybe, God has placed you there for a reason, perhaps as a witness and help to a vulnerable body and Spirit. Then, and only then, can you truly say, ‘I understand’, and may God Bless you as you use the experience of your own trouble with those who desperately need to hear it!      

Compassion

How far does your Christian compassion go? If it is anything like mine, it is  pretty good most of the time, because we naturally feel some sympathy with people who need help, or are suffering badly through no fault of their own.

Apparently, the USA has a prison body of 1% of the adult population, and half of those are for drug related crime. This is astonishing, but shows a deep underlying problem, which all ‘free’ western cultures share, including the UK. We have an epidemic of unhappiness on our hands, and we don’t know how to deal with it. We try to break habits of the offenders, and put prisoners into rehab and programs to break addiction. All well and good, but these don’t address the root of the problem, do they? What can you do to make the problem better, and make people happier?

This week there are two young women from Scotland and Ireland, who are spending prison time in Peru, waiting for a trial, perhaps a year away, for being drugs couriers. They were carrying about 25lbs of cocaine worth millions of Dollars. A drug which promises happiness, but delivers heartache, sadness, broken homes, and death. They claim they didn’t know the drugs were in their luggage, and then changed their story to say they were forced at gunpoint. I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I have to know down to the last ounce, what the weight of my case is, and have to go through a barrage of security questions before travelling to determine that I know what is in my case, and that I am solely responsible for the contents. There is a big difference between making a mistake about what foodstuff is allowed, and hard drugs. So do I feel sympathetic to the plight of these girls? In a way, I do, but I am not sure I am happy with myself for that feeling.

Compassion is a different and much misunderstood word, and we mistake it for blind sympathy. I looked up the definition of compassion, and it is: “Deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it.” When I read about the times that Jesus was compassionate, it was always to people who had no control over the position they were in. They might have been poor, blind, or hungry, but never because of their own actions. So, am I wrong not to feel compassion for the victims of drug dealers and pushers, or for the dealers and pushers themselves? This is a tough question, and one that must be answered honestly. I have no doubt that God can, and does, forgive drug users and their dealers completely and fully, but can I? Can you? Our actions have consequences, and Jesus never changed the natural consequences of any human actions, even when He was on the cross, did He? I feel sorry (but not too sorry) for these two young drug carriers, but I can’t bring myself to feel compassion. Am I wrong as a Christian? Should I feel both sympathy and compassion?

Bulger, Thompson, Venables and the 'Psycho'-logist

The story is told of a Social Worker (or psychologist) walking home one night, when she sees a poor elderly man slumped against a wall, with severe head and face injuries, blood running down his face, and his clothes all torn. He cannot move, and is asking for help. The Social Worker says, 'The person who did this needs help'! This is not funny, but is is relevant!!


Children's Commissioner Maggie Atkinson, who was appointed to the post last autumn, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12 years old. Dr Atkinson also said 'politicians should put the needs of children first and not allow themselves to be so influenced by the views of victims' relatives'. Did you catch that? Now for the question, 'who is the victim'? Or in our case, who deserves the public sympathy, Bulger, Thompson or Venables? Or maybe even the psychologist? 


Today, a leading psychologist, with a really bad hair day, was aired on TV saying that children of 10 don't really know right from wrong, and even though they might know it is wrong to steal, it won't stop them from stealing. Apparently we should better understand these children, and give them the help they need.... after they do the crimes! It's not their fault. Oh diddums dearie... Yes it is! Wake up and see it for what it is. It is a crime, and in this case a hideous, and heinous evil crime against an innocent child who was lured to a place where terrible injuries were inflicted. They KNEW where to take him. They KNEW what they wanted to do to him. They KNEW to do their crime away from prying eyes, where they would be left in peace to humiliate and murder their helpless young victim.


Maybe we do need to help the 'children' who commit such crimes, but only while they are in prison, and not let out early for 'good behaviour' because a psychologist thinks they are no longer a danger to the public. Now one of the pair is back in prison where he should have stayed all along. Lets not listen to the social workers or 'experts' in such cases. Let's listen to the deep voice inside the ordinary man and woman who knows more than any Oxford educated expert, who incidentally only wants their 15 minutes of fame on a TV interview, and is only interested in furthering their own narrow minded agenda.


One of the sad outcomes of all the recent happenings is that another victim, Jamie Bulger's mother, has had to go through it all again, and listen to the educated (not wise) drivel of an eminent psychologist, who has had a bad hair day. Put it another way, she will be recognised again if or when she appears on TV again, and she will love to spout again, as she uses up what remains of her 15 minutes of fame.


In the recent past, Venables has been locked up because of another crime, after having been released from prison early with Thompson, given new identities to avoid them being identified and maybe a crime being perpetrated against them for something evil they did to a small boy years earlier. The law of the land was used extensively to help the killers, and very little was done to help the victim's family. Where is the justice in that?

We often hear politicians saying about such things, 'we need to ensure this kind of thing never happens again'. Ok, now do something about it!