Compassion Permanence

How often do we as Christians speak to the need to care for the poor but even without realizing it we do little because our daily lives take up so much room? Over at New Attitude there is a good article entitled: Suburbia vs. Social Justice that deals with how all too often without even realizing it we simply forget the poor and the downtrodden that Jesus told us to care for. This may not be true of all and the article even articulates that this is not a call for everyone to move to urban areas but is instead a call to make sure that we do not forget those God tells us to care for.

What is wrong, as with most things, is we have come to rely on government to care for people when we are the ones that are called to do it. The problem is that when government gets involved they are in general wasteful but more importantly it separates the care from the Gospel. We are to care for the needy so as to shed the light of the Gospel to people that are in need of more than just food and necessities. This does not mean we ignore the physical needs but we need to care for both and letting government care for the physical will take away our opportunity to be a light.

I personally need to see how this relates to me but the article was a call to spend time in prayer and contemplation on a part of scripture that is often ignored or implemented wrongly. My encouragement is to read and then pray as to how God would have you cultivate compassion permanence.