Compassionate Strength

So, today I want to try something new. I want to challenge myself to write more, so I am going to start taking random prompts from the internet and trying to get a page or two out of them. One that jumped out at me today was this:

How do you show compassion to others? 

Well, some might argue I should start with whether or not I show compassion at all! I’m known as mr. “tough guy.” Nowadays, if you hear the words “suck it up!” There is a good chance that I am in the room. But, as much as I value strength and the pursuit of discomfort, I actually try to use it to benefit others. There are two major ways I try to do so. 

I often feel the impulse to use my strength to protect those who don’t have it. I’ll spare someone twenty bucks so that they can live comfortably, even if it means my budget gets a little tighter. I get really fired up when I see someone’s mindset suffering. To me, when I see people stuck on something, it’s like a robber is standing on their throat. It enrages me to see people hold themselves down with limiting beliefs, like how I hear someone say that cold showers are beyond them. Nothing is beyond you! You just have to learn to wiggle your foot in the door, and before you know it: BAM! The door kicks wide open! I feel like a superhero seeing an innocent person being picked on. But the problem is: they are actually picking on themselves. That’s the important part I have to remember: I’m not at war with the person, I’m at war with attributes. It can make things tricky, because sometimes people are so utterly crushed that they can’t tell you’re trying to help them. Other times they take it personally, and see you as a threat to them. It’s a tricky balance to walk. I wish I could say I always got it right, but sometimes I get carried away, and wind up looking like a meathead. 

For me, it all boils down to hope. I used to believe that hope was found in my own ability to fight back against my problems. I have since begun learning more about hope. Honestly, I want to do a study on hope, because I feel like there is something deep that I am barely scratching the surface of. For now, I understand it through a metaphor. Like everything, I see this in terms of combat. Hope is a weapon to be wielded. It’s a giant blade. It’s dangerous, it will cut you sometimes, but we are obligated to wield hope. No battle is won, or even fought, without first wielding hope. I mean, you could fight without hope, but you’re sure to lose. After all, who steps into a war believing they will do nothing for their cause? You have no choice but to believe that you can win, that you must win. Hope is a force against darkness. It pushes back against defeat, and rebukes the belief that all is lost. If you don’t learn to wield the force of hope on the battlefield, you will surely fall. 

The second point is this: although I can often be strong for others, that only goes so far. In the long run, everyone needs to learn to be strong for themselves. I can endlessly spur someone on to run a marathon, but only they can sign themselves up. It’s their feet that run the race, and their hearts that latch onto the commitment. If I keep encouraging someone to grow and the idea doesn’t catch on, no amount of strength of mine will save them. I can only point to the door, they must walk through it. True, it enrages me when they decline my not-so-gentle encouragement, but that’s because deep down I want to see people glow. I want to see their minds escape their tormentors and to truly be free. For even if you don’t achieve every goal, or shatter every boundary, I have found there is no greater freedom than to resist what you know to be wrong with your life. I would rather die fighting for a cause I want to change, even if I knew with absolute certainty that it would never come to pass than to live life accepting what I knew wasn’t right. There’s freedom in resistance. There’s freedom in the fight. 

Thus, if you ever run into me in real life and I get carried away about how you should be strong like me, know it comes from a place of compassion. I don’t want to see you suffer. I hate seeing you play your own warden and prisoner. I want everyone to crush their warden, and run as free people. Because once you have had a taste of what you’re capable of, you’ll be ravenous before you know it. 

I pray this encourages you to break free of the prisons in your mind. If you feel beaten down and broken, know I’ve been there too. I get it. That’s why I pray you learn to wield hope like a mighty broadsword, a two-handed blade of blazing glory. I pray you learn its ways, and grow in greatness. 

Until next we meet

May peace be your guide