Inspired Lives: Compassion, Courage, and Constructive Connection
Inspired Lives
What’s the value of a life if it is self-absorbed? Does our creator value our personal accomplishments as much as he treasures the life-changing love relationships that we forge while in this world? I would contend that the latter has greater lasting importance. Please consider: 1 Corinthians 13:1–2: If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
These words of the Apostle Paul have echoed with a powerful truth throughout the last two millennia. In the end, don’t we all want to feel connected and loved by family and friends as our greatest good and deepest joy? Some worldly accomplishments do change lives, don’t get me wrong, but the most powerful achievements were spawned from a sense of compassion and understanding for our fellow men, women and children.
Some historical figures stand tall in the pantheon of human and sometimes divine triumphs: Jesus Christ, Moses, Mohammed, The Buddha, Mother Mary, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, the Apostle Paul, Confucius, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Lao Tse Tung, Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and so on.
So, what does this amazing, but divergent group of people have in common besides their well-celebrated status? I would argue that they all had a compassionate need to care about the well-being of their fellow humans and many of them also felt that they were working in service of God, as well. They were all incredibly courageous trailblazers, too. While many were adamant atheists , I would argue that they were still great humanitarians and could be considered a sort of anonymous believers.
There are many villainous historical figures, that we can all name, that were mostly about gaining personal power and popular status, but that eventually either became hollow for them and/or was hurtful to them and others. Some, like Hitler, changed the world in profound ways, but we saw that good eventually trumps evil.
I contend that a valuable, inspired life is all about compassion, courage and constructive connection rather than a philosophical agenda and status-seeking accomplishments. Maybe that sounds obvious or even cliched, but so many people miss out on this in their approach to life.
Please consider what Jesus said in Matthew 9:13:
13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
So, you see, it’s not all about our profound verbal hyperbole or the name dropping that we are able to engage in or even our latest scientific breakthrough. It’s about the spirit in which we conduct our lives and the care that we show for the least of our neighbors around us. Don’t we value our loved ones the most of anything within or about our lives? So it’s up to us to do them proud and to live our lives with integrity and compassion. As Casey Kasem used to put it: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars”. I see that line as encouraging us to stay grounded in the reality of the love in our lives, but to also keep striving to do transcendent, worthwhile things during our time here on Earth.
Brene’ Brown talks at length about the importance of compassion, connection and courage in our lives in her national best-selling books. I hope that you will look to her for inspiration and education on this crucial topic.
In the final analysis does it really matter who wins that ongoing philosophical/political argument if it is not all about love?
Do any of us here really get the last word? And isn’t existence more than just thoughts, words and emotions?
