Hope from Compassion

I've seen this meme quite a few times. 
I agree with some of it... to a point.
I mean, I don't personally agree with all my friends and acquaintances' opinions. Nor do I agree with all that my loved ones may believe or do. I think diversity is beautiful. If we all believed the same things, how boring would that be!??
Yes, I can do this and still love them deeply!

Maybe it isn't a "huge lie" of culture like this quote suggests...
(by the way, the fact that they use the term "Huge Lie" really does suggest the need to instill fear to me. That's just my opinion.)

Maybe the reason you "disagree" is because you DO fear or hate... have you researched your own heart?? I did... I didn't like what I found there. Most of my firmly held "convictions" were indeed so firmly held because I DID fear.

I did fear that if I let go of all these "convictions", that my whole safety net would fall out from under me and my life would fall apart. The problem is that often my convictions did not leave room for love and compassion. Deep inside I felt better when I could look at the bad that happened in someone's life and say in my heart... "Ohhhhh, that's because they did THAT", or "Ohhhhhh. that's because they lived THAT lifestyle."

All this did was strip love and compassion from me and made me more intent on being "right" and living "right". For me, it was a sad spiral and only made me more fearful and more judgmental.

I am NOT saying it's a bad thing to have a good set of convictions.  Murder is wrong, hate is dangerous, doing things that are below your self love and God love is not who you were meant to be, gossip is poison, being judgemental is a waste of precious love... Convictions can be GOOD things!

One of the other problems I have with this, is that it isn't just that people silently "disagree" with others. Often they feel that disagreeing and the NEED to let others KNOW how strongly you disagree with so and so's "lifestyle" must go hand in hand.
Rather than just living your life and let others be free to lead their life.

Often I've heard people say, "I don't want to "condone" their actions."
So, for example, they feel that shunning or treating with disdain a person who recently divorced, or may be going through a promiscuous stage or doesn't have a good work ethic or what have you;
is JUSTIFIED because then they are not "Compromising their Convictions"...
We certianly all have the freedom to make those decisions, don't we? The whole idea that you think have some power to "condone" someone is probably one of the biggest issues of pride I can think of and maybe you should be working a bit more on yourself and less on others? I think a Great Teacher once told a story about a splinter and a plank... 

I guess I just feel that it is more important to try hard to not compromise COMPASSION...
(Which is actually MUCH harder to do).

I spent far too much time in my life hypocritically "loving the sinner and hating the sin"

I have Hope in COMPASSION.
Because I know *I* need it so desperately.
Because I know it is rooted in Love.
Because it is so beautiful in action.
Because I know it can and has changed the world.
Because it has given me more freedom and love than "convictions" ever have.