One of my earliest childhood memories was of me crying as I sat in front of our television at home, watching donation appeals for children dying of hunger in Ethiopia. I used to wonder what I could ever do that could help, as I’m just simple little me. The desire to be a part of something bigger that could actually bring about some change in the world kept growing, and as I grew older, I noticed the same in other people as well.
Videos we saw of innocent children being killed in Syria, boat people who arrive in Australia closer to death than life, women who have been trafficked and forced into prostitution, slaves being sold to the highest bidder in Libya – no one could watch such videos of stark realities in the world without their hearts being touched. I believe that compassion is an intrinsic nature of humans; we can never just look away when we see another human being in pain or suffering injustice.
Compassion is more than just an emotion though – it is what stirred up life-changing movements in history. I can imagine that that’s probably how it started for William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela; people who have had tremendous impact in the way history unfolded during their times. I’m sure that each of them probably cried many tears for the poverty and injustice that they witnessed around them before arriving at the conclusion that they needed to do something about it.
Compassion needs a corresponding action to bring about change in the world. It needs to be strong enough to not only bring tears to our eyes for a moment but remain with us for the rest of the day, week, or year. It needs to have our attention despite our busy-ness, and despite everything else that vies for our attention. The day-to-day realities of millions of people in the world are so vastly different from our lives that it seems hardly possible that we are living on the same planet, or in their case, dying on the same planet. What will you do to change that today?
“Having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce, abolition speech, 12 May 1789
Compassion – more than just an emotion
One of my earliest childhood memories was of me crying as I sat in front of our television at home, watching donation appeals for children dying of hunger in Ethiopia. I used to wonder what I could ever do that could help, as I’m just simple little me. The desire to be a part of something bigger that could actually bring about some change in the world kept growing, and as I grew older, I noticed the same in other people as well.
Videos we saw of innocent children being killed in Syria, boat people who arrive in Australia closer to death than life, women who have been trafficked and forced into prostitution, slaves being sold to the highest bidder in Libya – no one could watch such videos of stark realities in the world without their hearts being touched. I believe that compassion is an intrinsic nature of humans; we can never just look away when we see another human being in pain or suffering injustice.
Compassion is more than just an emotion though – it is what stirred up life-changing movements in history. I can imagine that that’s probably how it started for William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela; people who have had tremendous impact in the way history unfolded during their times. I’m sure that each of them probably cried many tears for the poverty and injustice that they witnessed around them before arriving at the conclusion that they needed to do something about it.
Compassion needs a corresponding action to bring about change in the world. It needs to be strong enough to not only bring tears to our eyes for a moment but remain with us for the rest of the day, week, or year. It needs to have our attention despite our busy-ness, and despite everything else that vies for our attention. The day-to-day realities of millions of people in the world are so vastly different from our lives that it seems hardly possible that we are living on the same planet, or in their case, dying on the same planet. What will you do to change that today?
“Having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce, abolition speech, 12 May 1789
Kimberly Low, 30 August 2018