Compassion and The Golden Rule
When you turn on your television, pick up just about any national publication or read your local newspaper, you’re hit in the face with a barrage of statistics about the addiction crisis. You may even know a family who’s lost a daughter or a son to an accidental overdose. No doubt, you’ve heard the hew and cry that the current opioid epidemic is considered the most destructive in history. It’s too overwhelming to absorb. Is it possible to put any of the toothpaste back in the tube? If there’s a chance to turn things around in this country, how and where do we start?
My prayer is that we would start with COMPASSION.
Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” It’s the feeling that arises when you’re awake to another’s suffering and you’re moved to ease their pain. The giving and receiving of compassion is a sacred act and simply put, our world needs more of it. Compassion for addicts is in short supply, as it is for the struggling families who must build brave and heartbreaking boundaries in order to pursue their own health.
A novel idea, right?
Take care of ourselves?
Who’s got that kind of time?
However, in order to survive, we must learn to practice, practice, practice the Golden Rule – to love ourselves as we love our child, our spouse, or our neighbor.