My friend Carrie gave me a copy of her favorite book. It’s called, “Abba’s Child,” by Brennan Manning. I gotta be honest, the title wasn’t sexy, but since it was her fav, I jumped in. In chapter 4, I learned a new word: “indiscriminate compassion.” To explain this, the author used a metaphor: “is it possible for a rose to say, ‘I’ll offer my fragrance to good people but withhold it from bad people?'” Of course, the ultimate example of this, was Jesus hanging with indiscriminate compassion on a cross. There was no asterisk of names who were excluded from this. No one didn’t “make the cut.” No one was “too bad” to die for. I have been horribly judgmental of certain people and things, in past and even present. Indiscriminate compassion doesn’t do this. It looks at ALL, the almost perfect, the grossly evil, and every person in between and when given the chance–has compassion. Our heart was not created to hold the weight of judgement for others. If it were, we would be God. Only God has perfect, equal distribution of judgement and pardon. When you think about it, we kinda got the easy job – to simply love…indiscriminately.
This is EXACTLY what I have been dealing with for the past few months. When CBG started the prison ministry, it was a real journey for me. As I came face to face with some incredibly “disgusting” things, I also came face to face with own disgusting discriminations and my own judgmental spirit. You are absolutely right – it is not our job to determine who is worthy and who is not. It is our job to love the people that have been placed around us – exactly the way that WE have been loved.
This is EXACTLY what I have been dealing with for the past few months. When CBG started the prison ministry, it was a real journey for me. As I came face to face with some incredibly “disgusting” things, I also came face to face with own disgusting discriminations and my own judgmental spirit. You are absolutely right – it is not our job to determine who is worthy and who is not. It is our job to love the people that have been placed around us – exactly the way that WE have been loved.