Yes, Black Lives Matter. Yes, All Lives Matter.

Yes, black lives matter. And yes, all lives matter.

These two statements are not contradictory. 

Yet, some people feel as if they are. 

That to say, specifically, black lives matter, is to say no other lives matter. But that is simply not true.

I think the real meat of the matter is this: Our brothers and sisters (because if you are in Christ, that is what they are) feel like they are being mistreated, over-looked, judged, and abused. They feel like their lives, their existence, does not matter and is even unwanted.

That matters. The way they feel, whether you believe the facts to be true or not, matters.

The bible says rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.

What frustrates me is that people would rather feel like they have the right opinion on a matter, than have compassion for the people in the matter.

Jesus operated out of compassion. He interacted with people out of compassion. I think about Jesus and the story of him feeding the 5,000. The 5,000 in the story were literally stalking Jesus from the previous city he was in. The bible says they "followed him from the town" that he had just left. Jesus himself was in mourning. He had just found out his cousin and friend John had been beheaded. He was trying to be alone, but these people wanted something from him. People had heard and seen Jesus preform miracles and they were hoping he would do the same for them, the same for their loved ones. So they brought their sick and desperate to him. When Jesus saw them, he wasn't angry, or agitated. He was moved. He saw all of their needs, and he "had compassion on them and healed their sick."

It seems like now, when we hear peoples needs, it somehow offends us. Our response is, "well I have needs too." or "well I don't have those needs because I've worked hard to meet my own needs."

Jesus was in the middle of mourning. He needed to be alone. He wanted to be alone. Yet, he wasn't offended that these people wanted something from him in his time of need.

Jesus didn't need healing. He was perfect. He didn't reprimand them or blame them for their problems. He didn't look at Johnny in the crowd and say, "Johnny your arm is broken because you were being stupid, I am not fixing that". Or "Mary you would have never needed healing for that infection if you would have been responsible with cleaning the wound."

He just healed their sick. He met their needs.

The greek word for the compassion he had was "splagchnizomai" which means "to be moved as to one's bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity)."

Lol pretty gross right. But the picture is of a DEEP compassion. A compassion that literally grips the pit of your stomach.

When people speak on issues, I can hear immediately whether or not they are speaking from a place of compassion. If they are not, I don't want to hear what they have to say. Why? Because when you don't speak from a genuine place of love and compassion you are just making noise.

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."- 1 Corinthians 13:1

I think if you want to have an opinion about a controversial issue, you need to stop, and pray about it first. We need to seek to see through the eyes of Jesus, which were filled with compassion, as we just read. We need to ask him for his compassion. I'm not saying Jesus compassion always means a certain answer. But I think having his compassion changes the way you interact with people who have the opposite opinion. It changes the way you share your opinion. 

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”- Matthew 22:36-40

God wants more than anything for us to love each other. To have compassion for one another. People think because they don't hate someone that they are loving their neighbor. Yeah I love my neighbor, I mean I definitely don't hate him. To be indifferent is not love, and it is definitely not compassion. Loving our neighbor was the second thing he COMMANDED us to do. Even in the Old Testament there was a purpose behind the laws God gave. For example, the dietary restrictions were actually for the Israelite's' health. I believe he has the same purpose with the law I quoted above. I think when we love God and we love others it actually brings health to us individually and to our communities.

So when my brothers and sisters feel like they have to campaign for something as basic as the fact that their lives matter. It breaks my heart.

As a christian I want everyone to feel like their lives matter. Because to the King, every life matters. He created each person in his image. So each person reveals something beautiful about God. That means when we are ALL together in harmony, we get to see a fuller picture of the image of God. That to me is so beautiful, so powerful, so glorious. Of course Satan wants to ruin that. Of course he wants to bring in mistrust, offense, hurt, anger, fear, anything really to prevent us from living in the full image of God. 

I can see how the media tries to pit us against each other. "Look people don't care about black lives" "Look people don't care that cops are dying" You are either for cops, or you are for black lives. People feel like they need to pick a side. But the problem with that is, you start seeing from the lens of the side you are on, instead of through Jesus's eyes of compassion. 

Yes, black lives matter. Police lives matters. White lives matter. Asian lives matter. Hispanic lives matter. I agree that every life matters. But it doesn't offend me when one group screams "I want to feel like my life matters!" I want to scream back "I want you to too!" I want them to know their life matters, and I don't want to scoff at them when they are honestly sharing how they feel. I want to understand why they feel that way. I want to have compassion for them and make this world a place where they feel loved and accepted by the Father through me.

I don't have a big solution. The only person I can control is me. So I will choose to use my life to extend grace in the midst of complicated problems. I will choose to have compassion for people. I will seek to understand, instead of jump to judgment or opinions. I will use my life to honor other people, their opinions, their feelings, whether or not I agree. I will choose to have my Father's heart for others. I will choose to use my life to help people see how the Father sees them, how the Father values and loves them.

Is that enough to solve this huge social problem, no. But maybe its a start.