Being a Good Samaritan. What?!

Warning: this is not a “what I did this week” blog entry. This is a “what the Lord is teaching me” blog entry.

I have been challenged this week. Shocking, right? This month at JCS, we are focusing on the character trait--compassion. Yeah, I know that this is mainly geared towards the students, but I know that all these traits that we are teaching our students, we need to be practicing as well…and learning more about…so I’m learning more about compassion.

What the heck is true compassion? As I struggled through that, looked up the definition in the dictionary, and even looked at the index in the back of my Bible to try and gain a better understanding of what compassion is. According to my Bible’s index, compassion is “to have pity and show kindness to another.” As I pondered, had conversations, and just read more about “compassion,” I realized compassion goes SO much deeper than having pity and showing kindness. It’s about doing it always, always, always…even when I don’t feel like it.

In chapel on Thursday, Mr. Peterson talked about compassion. Granted this was geared towards 3-5th graders, but I think a lot of what he had to say helped my students and myself gain an even greater understanding of what true compassion is. He read to us the parable from Luke 10 called The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Basically in this parable, a man who has done nothing wrong is beaten, battered, bruised, almost killed and left for dead. A priest and a Levite (a person who worked in the Temple…a descendent of Levi…also a well-respected, holy man) both walked by this man but did not want to get themselves dirty by touching this “unclean” man. Then a Samaritan man (a people who had turned away from the Jewish body because of their desire to marry outside of what God allowed them, etc.) walked by and took pity on the man. Not only did he clean him and bandage him, but he also put him on his donkey, walked him into town, got him a room at an inn, and paid the innkeeper more than enough to help this poor man get well.

As I wrestled with this passage, this is a glimpse of what I was able to take away from it:

1. The most unlikely character can be the one that God uses the most to help those in need. Who would have thought I would be down in the Dominican Republic teaching at a Christian school? Not I! As I am sure not many of you would have thought that a month ago either…God brought me down here for a reason…although I’ve yet to see what that reason is, I know God is working…

2. Compassion can occur even if you are not “expected” to show compassion. Most of you who know me, know that I am fairly upfront and not sympathetic. Here in the DR, I’ve had to learn a whole lot about learning with people who are different from myself, people who are struggling through different things, and basically learning to live and thrive in a Christian community…again. I’ve had to learn to deal with people who are SO different than myself, people who are uncompassionate, people who are selfish, and still love them with Christ’s love regardless of how I WANT to feel about them.

3. This world had beaten, bruised, and almost killed me. Jesus came and held me and took care of me until I was strong again. What a beautiful picture of redemption. Jesus wants to be the person who will take care of you and love you and heal you of everything if you’ll let him…


Practical application?
Yes, I can stop to help a bleeding man on the side of the road, but I think that the Lord wants this extreme ideal of compassion to be taken into my own heart and my own situation. Basically, I think I’m learning to be compassionate with my students. On Friday, I had an “I think this is not the profession I was meant to do” day. Well, I had many of those this week and had to break down and just ask for help (which is so hard for me! a definite pride issue…yikes.). I am not the best teacher yet, I lose my patience with my students on a daily basis. I do not show them the grace and love they deserve. I don’t give them my best every minute. Why? Cause it’s not easy! It’s hard to constantly be patient, loving, giving, graceful. Oftentimes on Friday, I could not help but think, “would Jesus be so frustrated with _______ right now?” “would the Lord be pleased with how I am handling things right now?” Basically I had a WWJD moment. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s true. I guess it’s good that I recognize that I have a problem. I have little patience…
What am I taking away from it?
learning PATIENCE. learning COMPASSION. learning LOVE.

3 HUGE ideals that obviously I am not going to perfect my year in the DR, but 3 things I can definitely learn more about…grow through…observe wonderful examples of…

so maybe God brought me here to the DR to teach me about these things before I go back to the States and teach…whenever that may be…

I’m going to leave you with this Bible verse that I think encapsulates what I am striving towards:
Micah 6:8
“He has shown you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
And to walk humbly with your God.”