God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. Desmond Tutu

During this Lenten season, we are having a class looking at various movies and applying them to our lives and to our role in serving God. The heartbreaking movie this week was “Life is Beautiful”. Watching that movie makes me realize the power that we have as humans both for evil and ill treatment of others, as well as for compassion and care for others. Guido, the young man in the movie, gives hope to his son so that he is happy and has hope for the future. One might ask is that compassion in his situation or false hope. I saw it as compassion and caring for his young son in hope for a better life.

Today, we see so many instances of both compassion and hatred for others. The question that I am asking myself as a woman, “How can I influence through compassion, opportunities for others and a sense of hope for the future?” Can my smile really make a difference? Can I show love to the stranger and give care to their needs both by listening and by action? Do I look for opportunities to make a difference within my community or just assume everyone has the same opportunities that I do?

We have been studying the book by Robin D’Angelo on White Fragility and it raises so many questions for me about my actions and lack of action in the face of racial oppression. Do I use my voice when I hear racial slurs, someone sharing inappropriate words, or do I stay silent? How can I learn to use my voice to appropriately respond, yet not shut down the conversation? I am trying to take the approach of taking responsibility for my feelings and responding with how the inappropriate conversation made me feel rather than attacking the speaker. In that way, the speaker can reflect on how they spoke but not free attacked and I can perhaps change the nature of the conversation. For example, a student in one of my classes made a remark about one of the women in class. He said, “the only reason you had that opportunity was because you are attractive and that appealed to the CEO.” Wow! My first thought was to really take him on, but then realized if I shared how that comment made me feel and then ask the class how it made them feel, maybe it was a way to turn the conversation. So I said, “The comment made me very uncomfortable and that I saw Susan (name changed) as a very intellectual person who was an excellent match for the opportunity presented. I then asked if the comment made anyone else uncomfortable.” As you can imagine, many then shared examples of how racist and sexist remarks had made them feel. By sharing our Voice, we are offering compassion to those wronged and also to those that are perpetuating the wrong! You might suggest another approach and I would be interested in hearing any other thoughts you might have for ways to use your Voice for compassion.

I like the following quote and it strikes me as especially appropriate for today. In my view, the best of humanity is in our exercise of empathy and compassion. It's when we challenge ourselves to walk in the shoes of someone whose pain or plight might seem so different than yours that it's almost incomprehensible. Sarah McBride

When have you challenged yourself to walk in the shoes of the “other”? Let’s challenge ourselves over this Lenten Season to walk in the shoes of another.