Finding Compassion
January 15, 2010 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Recent MMMs, Suffering, Tolerance
Sam Matteson, Physics,
University of North Texas
[Jan 17, 2010]—
“How can I help? How can I minister to them?” I asked myself and God. The answer came without my asking when Arup questioned me about funerary practices in the U.S. He knew I had recently buried a parent and was therefore experienced in such sad matters.
After a call to a local funeral home alerting them to the situation and to do some fact checking, I shared the information with the grieving father. By the weekend a small group, most of whom were members or our department, gathered at the tiny grave side for a memorial service. Since the young Hindu couple lacked any strong ties to the nearest temple 40 miles away, Arup’s faculty mentor gave a brief eulogy and I was asked to lead in prayer.
A prayer for a lost child
It was one of the most challenging prayers I was ever asked to lead: a prayer by a Christ-follower to comfort, in the loss of their sweet infant, Hindu parents marooned in an alien culture. I will never forget the experience. I hope that God the Father of all humanity used my words of thanks for the brief life of their daughter to comfort Purnima and Arup and to affirm God’s love for us and her.
Reflecting on our role in the lives of our co-workers I sense that we who walk the Jesus Road are called to be more than casual in our compassion, more than incidental in our ministry to those whom we encounter day by day. I am challenged to “let the mind of Christ” be also in me. Time and again He was moved with compassion by the human condition, and yet I often selfishly communicate callous indifference. As I have stood beside the open grave of family members of my colleagues, issues of eternal significance have been highlighted.
I asked a trusted Jewish colleague with whom I have serious theological and philosophical discussions, why, did he think, most academics were reluctant to discuss spiritual matters. He replied “One’s relationship with a minister, priest or rabbi is unique; the minister has credentials as a ‘spiritual advisor.’ Most people of my acquaintance do not have such credentials. . . . But that said, there are some who demonstrate their spiritual credentials by how they live and care for those around them.”
In An Alien Landscape
I have often thought of his remark, and I aspire to be a real “ambassador for Christ” in an alien landscape.
Sometimes for me it may begin by getting to know them over a cup of coffee or lunch. Those little intentional steps of kindness.
Time often allows us to walk with friends and associates of the academic community through the vicissitudes of life, comforting them with the assurance that God is a God of love, pointing to the redemptive grace of Christ’s cross. Showing them, in a very imperfect way, a bit of the compassion that God has shown me.
© 2010 Samuel Matteson
The Little Decisions
October 19, 2009 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Priorities, Recent MMMs, Suffering
Mark Pritchard, Director
Northwest Center for Sport Business
College of Business, Central Washington University
[Oct. 26, 2009] –
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go onto victories you never dreamed of.
CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
“So, how does loyalty and commitment sound?” my advisor asked. We were in the midst of our weekly Friday doctoral research meeting, and I was one of two candidates ready to select our dissertation topics. “Sounds good,” I responded. Although not gushing with enthusiasm, I did feel a curious stirring. Looking back, I realize the subject was something for which I had been prepared (Eph 2:10).
Tony Waters
Truth be known, years before my father Phil had primed me with stories of dedication and commitment. One of his favorite films, Chariots of Fire, depicts Eric Liddell’s stand during the 1924 Olympics. A further story he shared was of another “hard-headed” Scotsman, Tony Waters, who tended goal for several Australian Olympic field hockey teams. Tony and my father had been teammates.
In one match, my father recounted, a sprinting center-forward broke through unmanned into the goal circle. Tony crouched at the ready, but at point blank range the forward struck a brutal undercut that rose sharply toward the upper corner of the goal.
Tony didn’t have time to lift his stick or glove but instinctively dove forward, placing his forehead into the path of the shot. The ball careened off his brow and over the cross-bar. Bleeding and a little dazed he jumped back to his feet ready to face the next shot-on-goal.
My business students usually gasp when I tell this story during class discussion on ethics. I ask them to consider whether the small things we commit to practice in private will shine through onto a more public stage. I also get to probe students about facing “big” ethical dilemmas, and ask if they think they’ll stand in the main if they have not stood in the small?
My Biggest Test
As a follower of Christ, preparing for campus life is important to me (1 Cor. 9:25-27). I am coming to see that readying myself for “big” tests is not the focus. In fact it appears to be quite the reverse; that my “big test” is that I remain faithful in the small. Mother Teresa’s approach to the overwhelming challenge of Calcutta’s poor was to do “small things with great love” (Poplin 2008, p.69). I believe this is also the heart of my challenge on campus.
As a Christian academic, when I think of the overwhelming task of “rebuilding the modern university”, I feel a bit like Mother Teresa in India. Like her, my commitment to follow Christ in the large task of rebuilding starts by doing small things with great love; laying one small stone at a time at my place on the wall (Nehemiah 4:6).
Poplin, Mary. (2008). Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service. Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL.
© 2009 Mark Pritchard