I have heard it said that theology is worrying about what God is worrying about when God wakes up in the morning. A simple question in Exodus always serves to remind me what God worries about: "This cloak of [your neighbor's] is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If your neighbor cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.” (Exodus 22: 26-27)
As a Christian, I must be worried about my neighbors, where they will sleep, how they will cover themselves, and from where they will receive their daily bread and drink. I am called to be compassionate as God is compassionate. To be compassionate means to “feel with” God and neighbor. As a Christian, I have been taught and believe that acceptance of God’s merciful love requires that I commit myself to others. Acceptance of the gift of life from God motivates me to work for justice, peace, happiness and life for all God’s children. This was a major factor in my decision to intern this year at World Relief. It is part of my personal commitment to others, to my neighbors, born out of the gracious gift of God’s love for the world.
In my work at World Relief teaching English, I find myself “feeling with” the English students what it must be like to come to a new country, learn a foreign language as an adult, be immersed in a strange culture, to weep for family members left behind, to worry about where they will sleep and what they will eat. I have discovered that in this “feeling with” my neighbors, especially as it spills over into my prayer life, I am lead to a new and deeper encounter with God. Being united to my neighbors in their joys and sufferings, in the challenges of a new life in a strange land creates anew in me a “thirst and hunger” for God.
I can also see now that it wasn’t only my theology--my way of believing and thinking about God--nor was it merely human compassion that empowered me to start and to hopefully one day complete this journey. All along the way God has been, is and will be with me and also with my neighbors, the newly-arrived individuals to this country. God is guiding all of us, leading us toward compassionate encounters with one another that in turn serve to lead us anew to God, the source and the summit of our journey. Praise be to God.
Caren is a student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School currently interning with World Relief Nashville for the 2011-2012 academic year.
