Broken

It is interesting...and ironically appropriate that yesterdays blog post was on "compassion". Little did we know that a huge earthquake was about to hit Haiti. Truth and bible trivia is not what's needed...but compassion is the answer. A call for the people of Haiti to suck it up and buckle down and be 'committed'...isn't gonna do anything but burden a weary and wounded people. But compassion my friends, is the call of the day...weeks...months...years. Perhaps it's the eternal call from the heart of God that we all to often forget or ignore. In Haiti, we see an already poor and downtrodden country...this earthquake has devastated an already devastated people. I hear of many believers, even leaders assessing the situation with their bible knowledge and attempts to determine the "why" and "how comes" of this situation. Why waste our time on that? Why try to determine the mystery of all this...rather than tackle the reality? Isn't it sad that it takes war for us to cry out for "peace". That it takes disease for us to cry out for "healing". That is takes failure for us to cry out for "mercy". And in this case, it takes tragedy upon the innocent, for us to become "compassion". It's sad it is that way...but maybe that is also why? The reality is hundreds of thousands of hurting people... already poor...diseased...and at risk...are now in an absolutely destitute circumstance. Bible knowledge and church commitment is not the answer...but compassion is! Jesus with skin on is what we are called to be! Too often the not-yet-believing world understands compassion better than we, the "believer", do...that should not be. At ECHO, we pray for and applaud those followers of Jesus who, with hearts broken with compassion, are doing whatever they can to assist the Haitian people...and we applaud those who are not-yet-believers who are allowing the compassionate heart of God to ooze out of their lives to others...even if they don't know it as being that. It is a very godly thing regardless...even if they just see it as 'doing the right thing'. The resaon it feels like you are "doing the right thing"...is because it is...compassion says so! And that is the very heart of Jesus!

be God's!
Brian O
Lead Pastor dude, ECHO