Here, Now, With You

Description

The greatest public health crisis is not cancer or heart disease; it is isolation, the U.S. Surgeon General said recently. Families, communities and faith organizations comprise more people who suffer being alone and disconnected than people who find wholeness through healthy, supportive, connection with others. This has profound social implications for individuals, for society, for faith communities, and for those who lead. Compassion is the conduit through which divine to human, and person to person connection flows. “Be compassionate as God is compassionate,” Jesus encourages (Luke 6:36). This sum and substance statement reveals Jesus' understanding of who God is while inviting us to a restorative way of being the world. Cultivating compassion in experience and practice breaches barriers that divide us, builds bridges of divine and human connection, and emboldens us to imagine for the sake of ourselves and communities the restoration of the world God so loves. Learn to see and be seen with compassion; Here, Now, with You provides an interactive framework which pastors, leaders in faith communities, organizations, and agencies can use within their respective contexts to facilitate meaningful conversations about compassion imagination and application. Each chapter involves an interactive and imaginative process starting with two premises: context is everything, but your context has its uniqueness; and God does nothing outside the context of relationships. These are grounded three theological foundations which provide exploratory footing: • God is already present in all situations no matter what, no matter who. Every person carries inherent dignity and worth, regardless of beliefs, religion, gender, sexual orientation, skin color, socioeconomic status, life-situation, or even awareness of the Divine DNA within them. • A spirituality of the present which creates awareness of the God of compassion who connects with us here and now will only empower conversation and imagination. • Questions are as important if not more so than answers. It's God's gift to find the answers we seek wrapped within the questions we are willing to ask. The individual or group process provided includes these steps: 1) exegete your particular community or cultural context, 2) explore a scriptural story, and then 3) envision next steps to engage in compassion within your community.