That experience a few weeks ago with the homeless man in Dallas has kinda been on my mind since it happened. It's not like it's the first time I've talked to a homeless man, but I really began to think of what it means to see people, to care about them enough to meet their needs, even if that need is just to be listened to.
Our chapel speaker this week lived as a homeless guy in a bunch of major cities for five months. He just took some time off from college and then went right back to it afterwards. He talked about how people work at not seeing you, and how Christians are no exception.
And then tonight, we had a Men's Rally where we discussed what it means to walk with each other in Christ. And that homeless guy talk kinda got me thinking about how to do it right. The biggest thing isn't just going out and helping people; it's going out and caring about the people, and that being the driving force behind what you're doing.
I guess that's what compassion is. I never really had a clear understanding of it till now.
I sometimes feel like I used to talk to people mostly for the sake of learning about myself. Probably the most selfish thing, I know. But I didn't even see how selfish it was until I made a point to sit down with people and hear their life stories, and I learned that despite what I had thought, I was not the most interesting person in the world. Everyone is. Each person has their quirks, their deep desires, their crazy family, and each person has their own story of how they learned to own these characteristics. In fact, the only thing I've come across as a pure waste of information from getting to know someone is when they talk about how uninteresting or unexciting their life is. And then they prove themselves wrong. Every time.
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