{"id":4014,"date":"2020-02-07T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/?p=4014"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:05:06","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T13:05:06","slug":"who-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/who-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are You?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Learning Compassion and building Community when you feel alone<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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David White, Publisher<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You know you\u2019re different. \nI know this because I\u2019m different, too. \nDifferent from people in the church. \nDifferent from people in the world. \nSome you recognize as more like you than others.  Some surprise you as more different than you\nwould expect.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you feel alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you feel like you\u2019re the only one who\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you know that can\u2019t be true.  You know there have to be others.  Others like you.  You also know that it\u2019s not enough just to\nfind them.  Others want to be like you \u2013\nneed to be like you.  You have a deep\npassion to serve them \u2013 if only you could see how to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want to show grace, but both the world and the church\nare full of condemnation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you wonder if you are too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t enough to want to talk about grace or forgiveness<\/a>\nor redemption<\/a>.  You want to show it.  To be a part of it.  You want to actually bring real healing and\ncatharsis into a broken world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you can\u2019t do it alone. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And where do you start?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think about the poor, the sick, the imprisoned.  Somehow they\u2019re almost too distant and maybe\ntoo different.   You don\u2019t understand\nthem.  You don\u2019t know their struggles,\nand even if you did, you can\u2019t imagine how to express to them all the things\nyou want to show them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a picture I\u2019ve drawn of myself, and I suspect I\u2019ve\ndrawn it of you too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do we go?  What\ndo we do?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you\u2019ve tried teaching a Bible study or volunteered at\na food pantry or even gone on a mission trip. \nAnd these things have satisfied, to a greater or lesser extent, some of\nthose desires.  Maybe for you, you\u2019ve\neven found a calling, a vocation, if you will, that you can do consistently and\nwith purpose.  Maybe, though, you\ncontinue to look for that next thing like an itch that never seems to be\nscratched.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, again, in either case, there\u2019s a good chance you feel\nalone.  Finding a community in which you not\nonly feel at home but where you can act, being both supporter and supported in\naccomplishing things larger than yourself, seems increasingly difficult.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You realize that there\u2019s a good chance you have to build\nthis community.  But you can\u2019t do it\nthrough shame and you can\u2019t do it through judgement.  So how do<\/em> you do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The compassion you feel might not be felt by others.  Compassion isn\u2019t something you can force, and\nit isn\u2019t something you can develop through force of will and desire.  You can\u2019t even learn it from reading the\nscriptures.  You learn that it\u2019s\nnecessary, sure, and maybe you\u2019re convicted that you don\u2019t have enough of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But compassion can only be learned by living it.  By humbling yourself before our fellow\npeople. Interestingly, sometimes you learn it by proxy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you find yourself moved with compassion when you\nhear a story about people on the other side of the world.   That\u2019s why when a missionary who speaks to\nyour church doesn\u2019t give a PowerPoint with facts and figures about the good\nwork they do.  They tell stories about\nthe people they help.  They put a human\nface \u2013 one that you can understand \u2013 on the people they\u2019re helping.  Suddenly you see this person, literally,\nthrough the eyes of that missionary.  You\u2019re\nable to build empathy just by hearing the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can gain experience of the people you want to serve just\nby hearing or reading about those people. \nStories motivate and creates communities more than any self-improvement\nprogram ever could.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So consider telling stories. \nSeek them out and find the ones that best touch your heart.  They\u2019ll touch others too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can build a common sense of purpose around these\nstories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choose stories that fit with the \u201cmission\u201d you want to\naccomplish.  Tell missionary stories if\nyou want to build a missionary community. \nTell stories about the homeless of you want to minister there.  Tell tragic stories about those who are in\nprison if you want to build a ministry to those people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that those people you want to help are, well,\npeople.  And people are their stories \u2013\nthe stories they tell about themselves and the stories that are told about them.  And don\u2019t get too caught up in the details \u2013\nthere\u2019s always nuance.  Not all stories\nhave to be \u201ctrue stories\u201d with all the details wrapped up in a bow.  What matters is the heart.  What captures your heart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do this, you\u2019ll build a world where you\u2019re still\ndifferent.  But you\u2019re no longer\nalone.  There are others around you who\nshare a story \u2013 you share an identity with each other.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together you \u2013 we \u2013 can be co-laborers together.  Together we can change the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So does this feel like you? Are you willing to take a risk to change the world? Consider sharing this article with one other person who you think might feel this way too. Perhaps it could open a dialog between you and start building a small community of which you can be a part. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Equally as important, though, is if this doesn’t feel like you or you feel like it almost <\/em>rings true let me know where I went wrong. Chances are I did miss on something and I’d love your feedback and the chance to correct or at least discuss it. Please email me through our contact form<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this article connected with you consider joining our mailing list. <\/em><\/strong>
Each Monday we send out content that you might just love.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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You know you\u2019re different. I know this because I\u2019m different, too. Different from people in the church. Different from people in the world. Some you recognize as more like you than others. Some surprise you as more different than you would expect. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-publishers-desk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4014"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4448,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions\/4448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}