Time for a Reconnect

I love new information. I love it even more when it is presented to me in a way that I can clearly understand. Listening to audio books and podcasts are some ways I have found to have knowledge sewn in. My day to day responsibilities can be all consuming but when I listen to these I feel equipped and empowered and productive as I fold laundry/drive. Even with my comprehension dyslexia, my body craves information. Listening gives me an avenue of just enjoying the information and ingesting it without the seriousness of having to take notes as I usually do in a tangible book - fiction or non. 

But I stumbled across a podcast by Dr. Aliza named "Raising Good Humans". The content was scientifically explaining how we can grow compassion in yourself and your family (episode 74). She does not speak specifically to the connection of "God creating us this way," but it made think about how HE has made us. God has so intricately designed us, even our stress responses and in our biology. Some of her findings just scream the relationship that God is desiring with us and how associated it is to having compassion for others.

• Compassion helps us relate to the people in our relationships. When we act out of compassion and not pride or anger we value the connection between the relationship. 
• Compassion is not empathy. When we encounter a tricky situation and we feel empathy, compassion is the call to action.
  
• Compassion is a natural human reaction to empathy and a call to action to helping support and care for others. Our brains literally light up when we express compassion on others.
• Children who express compassion for others likely have parents that also show compassion.
  
• When you express compassion, it is good for your heart, mind and body biologically! 
• It is easier to cultivate compassion, than cultivating anger. 
  
• Compassion cannot be fully bloomed unless there is a routine of meditation and time/space to make it happen.

Finding God behind the science is as much of a treat to me as finding a Swedish fish pack in my kids Halloween bag. I often wonder why people feel it has to be science or God? My question I came away with from the podcast was, "What am I cultivating?" Because if I am not actively cultivating time and space with God for meditation so that my compassion can move from that, then in essence aren't I creating space and time for the opposite? If I am void of time and space with Him, what is the opposite of that? It's certainly not mindful or restful.  There are plenty of mindfulness techniques that we all can use: deep breathing, using your senses to notice the environment around you, reading, sleeping, listening to music, declarations over yourself, etc. But if I am not beginning with Him and resetting in Him then is it really a reset?

Where am I creating space for the acts of compassion to happen? Good people without God can be compassionate, sure. But for how long? And where does the abundance come from? I also think when we invite him into the moments, the acts of compassion are SO much more intimate. To be on the receiving end of someone working out of compassion because God asked them to, is more love laid on a person than any ONE of us can give, because it comes from Him.

In a world that is moving farther away from helping each other because the lines of what is "good" and what is "bad" are so muddied, we need to bring that bridge. We need to bring Him in to every situation and say, "Where does God want to meet this person today?" We need to look to Him so we CAN notice where other's are hurting. Have you ever had someone just pop into your mind? I don't find it coincidence that they came to mind, but that God maybe placed them there so you can be his hands and feet. 

But all of that takes time, and time is fleeting with the amount of activities. However, if you have your time with HIM you can bring him into your activities. It would only seem natural because that is where he has asked you to be. It doesn't have to be weird, and pushy. But I guarantee, if you are flowing out of compassion which is abundant because of your meditation with Him, that time will be blessed, well spent, and more timely than any act of service you could have thought up yourself.

When we are lacking compassion, maybe we need to have a reconnect with God. When things seem difficult and we can't see the other person's side of the story, maybe we need a reconnect.