Steadfast Compassion
The fourth saying of the Living Christ:
If you say, “No one is good,” you speak both truth and a lie. If goodness were a thing you could seize, no one would have it. If goodness were a treasure to be seized, no hand could hold it. But goodness is not seized, and it is not worn.
Only God is good, not because God behaves well, but because God is the source from which goodness flows.
A well does not drink from itself.
If you say, “You are worthless,” why then does the Father call your name? You say you are righteous because you belong to God. Then why does God seek to teach you?
Look at the tree. The tree does not strain to be alive. Yet if it bears no fruit, it is cut back.
Do not say, “I am good,” and do not say, “I cannot be good.” Instead, ask, “From what root am I drawing life?”
If you live from God, goodness will grow, not as a possession, but as fruit.
You are not good instead of God. You are not ruined beyond God. Remain.
If you have ears to hear, the still, small voice of God calls everything to goodness. It cannot be forced, or it becomes obedience, not goodness.
When you care for one another, do not press on them, because love is not forceful. Dominance is not love; it is wickedness and cruelty. The tree shades others under its limbs, entwines with its neighbor through its roots, and feeds many with its fruit, which carries its hopes for the future.
Be careful in all your work. If the branch gives more than the root provides, it withers, and the fruit turns bitter. If love grows tired and withdraws, it can curdle, feeling that it has betrayed itself.
Steadfast compassion endures without force or threats. It seeks not its own reward, but keeps faith with people and its commitments.
Compassion is reliable.
Compassion works love consistently, with patience, and flows from the present heart.
Compassion stays with people in their troubles.
Compassion remains and does not abandon the wounded.
Compassion perseveres through care and support.
Compassion teaches the difference between perseverance and control.
Compassion demands nothing.
Compassion heals.
Steadfastness learns to serve love and not dominate.
Steadfast Compassion repairs the world through opening the way for justice, healing, and community to unfold as the kin-dom awakens in the world. It grows from choosing steadfast loyalty to compassion over a devouring passion or feeling.
Charlie, I am so grateful to know of your post. I too am counting the Omer this year, as I wait for my broken hip to heal. I appreciate today, that I call double giveruah day, or how does justice reside within strength or how does strength reside with in justice. Thanks so much for sharing your work and words. Much aloha, Roxanne