If you follow me on Instagram you know I'm fairly obsessed with my dog. Nala’s a 20-pound Chow Chow, Border Collie, and Lhasa Apso mix. And she’s the sassiest, sweetest, most beautiful dog ever — if I do say so myself. Even before my husband and I adopted her, we started watching all the dog training shows. One of our favorite shows was Ceasar Milan's, "Better Humans, Better Dogs." I ended up listening to one of Ceasar's books, Cesar’s Way on audio.
I'll always remember the story he told about his love of Pit Bulls. In one chapter, Cesar talked about how these powerful dogs got a bad rap. How some owners with the goal of making money, “trained” their dogs to be warriors by doing things like depriving them of food or even mixing hot peppers in their food so that when they could eat - they couldn’t really. Making them — for all intents and purposes — hangry. This deprived state, coupled with a powerful jaw created vicious fighting machines.
I felt sick to my stomach. It was a cruelty I’d heard of before, but it seemed to hit differently now that I had a dog myself. These dogs weren't naturally aggressive but were made that way by owners in search of profit and perhaps some twisted form of entertainment.
It felt inhuman…Inhumane.
Sub-human.
Because it’s beneath us. Humanity wasn’t created for cruelty, but the air quality outside of Eden is polluted by it.
The impact of scarcity
It seems obvious to us that behavior like this is wrong. That not feeling compassion for a defenseless animal, or anyone more vulnerable than ourselves is somehow inhumane. Ask yourself what happens when you see an act of compassion or hear about one…Something inside of us exhales, doesn’t it? Something is relieved.
Because compassion somehow feels directly tied to our natural state of being. But there are hurdles that stand in the way of that natural state; walling us from one another.
I call these hurdles: Compassion Blockers.
In Curious Compassion #2 I explored judgment as a Compassion Blocker, but in this case and in many others, scarcity can also be a hurdle or motivation to either look the other way when we encounter cruelty or even participate in it.
When we allow our humanity to be overtaken by feelings of not having enough, scarcity pushes any sense of Shalom or wholeness into dark corners of desperation. Those places where we're willing to do things we wouldn't ordinarily do, like use violent means in order to flourish.
There are, of course, many examples (both historical and current) of how scarcity robs us of our humanity, leading to atrocities of mass proportion; like The Transatlantic slave trade and human trafficking. People have to embrace scarcity on a grand scale in order for institutions like this to flourish and for compassion to lie dormant for years and years.
Scarcity has a way of turning us into people who grab and force our will onto others. With a mindset that time, resources, power, and love, are scarce, we can easily become people who will push someone down on Black Friday to get the last big screen or pass the same unhoused person over and over again without a word on our way into the grocery store. We morph into angry drivers who will swerve into oncoming traffic to pass someone driving too slow or browbeat our spouses until our needs are met.
It’s only when we believe that the thirsts of our hearts can’t and shouldn’t always be sated, but that our needs will always be met, that we can live without shackling others mentally, emotionally, or physically. This freedom, in my experience, is found not just in claiming Christianity or a moral ethic, but in a day-to-day relationship with Jesus. One that grows in depth and asks us to take a hard look at our motives while beholding His shockingly generous love.
In what ways have you allowed fear of not having enough to stand in the way of compassion?
Because I’m Dog-Obsessed…
We’ll do anything to keep you safe.
A kind-hearted little boy tells his recently adopted dog that he’ll do anything to keep him safe. This after the dog was rescued from abusive owners. I hope you’ll watch the video by clicking the link at the bottom of this screengrab.
I hope you enjoyed this month’s installment of, Curious Compassion.
If you’re a ministry or non-profit leader, please visit my website for practical resources. You’ll discover The Copy Shop is especially helpful! That’s where you’ll find lots of goodies to help build engagement, trust, and professionalism for your organization.