Compassion Coaching

JESUS CALLS US to enlarge our circle of companions, to expand compassion beyond the boundaries of our present awareness. Jesus ate meals with misfits and outcasts as well as with his friends. Jesus healed the daughter of a Gentile woman, even as he claimed that his main mission was to save the Jews. When I imagine Jesus staring into that woman’s insistent face, I believe his own heart was broken and his compassion enlarged by God’s boundless mercy. All of us, it seems, are candidates to be stretched Godward by compassion coaching.
- Don C. Richter Mission Trips That Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World
From p. 44 of Mission Trips That Matter by Don C. Richter. Copyright © 2008 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books from the Upper Room website

Richter's phrase, "compassion coaching"; caught my attention. Is that the teaching of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Maybe that is a way to describe spiritual formation work. I might see it as a way to discuss parish ministry. Compassion coaching. What do you think!

Today is my day off. Last week I spent my day off getting ready for Ruby Austin's funeral on Tuesday, making a couple of hospital visits and then taking Sara to St Paul. Today I have my errands and projects that I'm looking forward to doing.

The idea for the Sunday sermon is brewing in my mind and I might try to write it down before it slips away.

When I finish this post I will do my "green thing" and put the laundry on the clothes line. Nothing better than line dried sheets! It's something I grew up with and I wonder if the neighborhood associations that don't allow clothes lines will change their policies and see it as a good energy choice.