Are you a Ragpicker?

I just finished reading Og Mandino's "The Greatest Miracle in the World."

I liked his other books better, but this one got me thinking about something. In the book you meet a 'ragpicker' who finds people who have given up on life and helps them find the beauty in life again. 
I started thinking about how it takes compassion to be a ragpicker. It takes empathy to see the hurts of another and to reach out regardless of the potential of being hurt yourself. 

And then something interesting happened.

I began to rationalize why I couldn't be a ragpicker in prison. Compassion is a sign of weakness. And the dregs of society, or dirty rags if you will, in prison don't deserve my compassion. Oh, there are exceptions of course, but by and large, the people I've met in prison are not only imprisoned physically. They are imprisoned in their minds. They are committed to their foolishness with little or no desire to put in the work to change. Simply put, they didn't deserve my compassion.

And then I remembered something.
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Christ in me doesn't need to wait for someone deserving to show compassion to, because I was shown compassion without ever deserving it. 

Do you know someone undeserving of compassion? Go out and love them anyway.

A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

I heard a definition of sacrifice a while back that struck me with the power of its truth:

'Sacrifice is the act of giving up something good now for something better in the future.'

There's so much truth here that can be applied to so many facets of life, but nearly all of them are centered on benefiting the one who does the sacrificing. 

What about when you sacrifice something good now (for yourself  for something better in the future (for someone else)?

What you sacrifice could be fame, fortune, comfort, time, or many other good things. 

Some have even sacrificed their very lives for the future freedom (good) of others.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I'm drawn to thinking about sacrifice because Psalms 107:22 talks about making a sacrifice of thanksgiving. 

Why is giving thanks a sacrifice? Perhaps because it is an intentional minimizing of myself in order to magnify another, in this case God. 

Even in prison I have much to be thankful for. I'm thankful for God's faithfulness, His Love, His Grace, and Forgiveness. I'm thankful for many things and I try to maintain an attitude of gratefulness at all times. 

As you carve your turkeys and gather with family, what sacrifice of thanks will you make?