Closer to Home
Compassion and Prayer
Reflection By Jan Kwiatkowski
Taking this world as it is and not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
Years ago, when I was in parish ministry, members of the church and I were wrestling with what it means to be compassionate, both in our church life, and in our individual lives. We noticed that we often found it easier to discuss people who were distant from us—people with whom we would likely never come in contact—than it was to discuss people and conditions closer to home.
Closer in, we tended to complain about crabby clerks at the grocery checkout, neighbors doing laundry late at night, or the ladies who insisted on using the silverware for coffee hour when those disposable wooden stir sticks would do just fine. We griped about times we were tired because one of our kids was sick and kept us up.
It took us time and reflection to realize that the way we were responding to those close by wasn’t life-giving, for them or for us. And it was a long way from compassion. So we committed to praying regularly for the capacity to extend greater compassion to those with whom we lived and worked and worshipped. And along the way, we gleaned many gifts from our shared practice of compassionate prayer.
One prayer that always opened and softened our minds and hearts was the Serenity Prayer. Part of it is above. The full prayer is on p. 78. I pray that it continues to open our hearts to those closer to home.
Making it Personal: Who is not too far from you that might need prayer and compassion right now? Can you think of a time when you found it more challenging to respond compassionately toward those closer to home?