Macro-compassion projects from the West tend to swallow up micro-compassion lifestyles for the Rest. Compassion in the hands of the few on behalf of the many is extremely limiting. How can we help to reverse this syndrome and make compassion every Christ follower’s natural rhythm of life in their micro-spaces, thus becoming a global movement?
While serving with a Christian humanitarian organization in South Sudan, I worked with a Dinka man named Abijek who lived in a nearby village. He was employed by the organization to keep an eye on the goings-on in and around the compound where our team was based, which was comprised of little more than a flimsy straw fence surrounding the camping tents where we slept, four or five mud huts known as tukuls, and two white canvas storage tents used to store program supplies.
The Lausanne Movement describes integral mission as a style of mission that recognizes “no biblical dichotomy between evangelistic and social responsibility.” Putting this concept into the form of an action statement, we might say that integral mission is “integrating the proclamation of the gospel and social action.”
In my last post, we visited God’s heart for social justice by listening in on a conversation between a child and a parent. Additionally, we visited Isaiah 1:17, which is a clear invitation to correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the cause of widows.
I was driving down a popular boulevard in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In a grassy area along the boulevard, I saw a man lift up his iron rod that served as a cane to strike a woman over her head. Without thinking, I slammed on my brakes, jumped out of my vehicle, and inserted myself between the man and woman to prevent a terrible tragedy of domestic violence. I stopped the bleeding anyway. I deescalated the situation. It was my spontaneous effort to participate in social justice.
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