[blockquote source=”Dietrich Bonhoeffer”]“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”[/blockquote]
I really like this quote, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer – as, it speaks to the very nature of what it means to be human.
In that, in order to understand we must be open to another’s pain.
When I was much younger, I remember another child saying to me, “If you don’t go to Church, you’re going to Hell.”
I was absolutely devastated. In my 6-year-old mind, I couldn’t understand how a compassionate God might reject me for a fault far beyond my control. Though, a spiritual household – my parents never forced us to attend Sunday services. I had always assumed they were simply too busy. However, I later learned there was a much deeper story.
My father, a war veteran, suffered from PTSD – or, ‘battle fatigue’ as the non-combat used to say.
In hindsight, I believe it was the nightmares that kept us away. A faith diminished, in the flash of a grenade.
Surely, a compassionate God would understand?
“If you don’t go to church, you’ll go to Hell.”
My goodness, how little we understand when life’s aperture is so very small. Our view of this world is marked in stark contrasts of black and white. And, between them only one distinction – that which is ‘wrong’ and that which is ‘right.’
In our haste, we mute the voices of those very much in need.
I believe it was Paul Tournier who once said, “He who loves understands, and he who understands loves.”
I could think of no better words. Where there is love, there is understanding; and where there is understanding, there is love. The two are nearly inseparable.
No matter our truth, my darlings, there is always a much deeper story – one that forces the ‘aperture’ to widen, so that we might gain a better view.
And, reminding us once more and again – that it is the role of the compassionate heart to listen.
