An Excavation of True Compassion

When we think of the word compassion, it usually describes a feeling that we have when we witness misery or suffering and our desire to see it relieved. On the surface, that seems ok, but there is room in that definition for us to maintain a comfortable distance from said suffering. When we take a look at the original definition of compassion from the Oxford English Dictionary it says, “suffering together with one another, participation in suffering”. In 1834, Noah Webster defined compassion as “painful sympathy”. Strong words that require a giving of oneself to the person experiencing misery; a costly service. How rare and beautiful it is to see this happen before your eyes; to witness true selfless compassion where no return is expected but rather a great cost.

Over the last several months, I have been privileged to witness some real acts of selfless compassion that have truly moved me. After a long time of what’s felt sometimes like slogging through the mud, I am pleased to report some very substantial progress toward our goal of building a permanent supportive tiny home community for the homeless, but before I go into detail, I want to talk about a couple of things going on in our everyday world that are allowing us to participate in the redemptive kingdom work of dignity restoration and empowerment on a daily basis. 

It has been two months since we first welcomed Kim, Connie, and Perri home to their RVs as a temporary measure while we await the completion of our village. I often tell people that I lead a double life because it’s not unusual for my days look like going to meet with a prospective donor or speaking at an event, followed by spending the afternoon clearing a clog in an RV septic system. I have a volunteer who is my go-to RV guy and has been showing me everything he knows and spending his time helping me. I can’t say that I always do so with great joy in my heart, but it’s part of life for now and a sweet mercy of the Lord to remind me where we came from. 

The truth is that I am trying to keep up with the selfless compassion of two of our board members. I won’t mention names because they are the last to want recognition, but as we have lifted three women off the streets, these two board members have been absolutely instrumental in wading through the challenges of lifting our first neighbors out of homelessness. They’re running circles around me in giving themselves away to serve their neighbors. They are doing a lot of things that need to be done like giving advice, rides, etc., but the most vital thing they are doing is cultivating heart-to-heart relationships. Our board members are looking at these formerly homeless women as their neighbors and taking the risk of being vulnerable so that real compassion might occur. 

I just finished a book called The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky which is where I’m drawing most of these quotes and definitions from and in it Olasky quotes Professor Robert Thompson in 1891 as saying “You can judge the scale on which any scheme of help for the needy stands by this single quality, does it make demands on men to give themselves to their brethren?” That quote in particular has been rolling over and over in my mind. Does our mission make demands on men to give themselves away in service to others? I can’t claim any credit for it, but I think I can truthfully say that everything we do is centered around that “painful sympathy” mentioned by Mr. Webster earlier in this post. After years and years of trying (and failing often) to find the best ways to help people, we have realized that the only true way to help someone out of a hole is to jump down in there with them and help them climb. You can imagine a real-life picture of this; someone grabbing onto you and digging into your back with muddy boots, standing on your shoulders to be able to see the sunshine. It’s painful, its messy, sometimes you end up with scars, more often than not it takes multiple attempts, and you begin to experience the darkness and loneliness of that hole too, eventually you may even need them to pull you out. Painful sympathy. Hands dirty. An uncomfortable proximity to the suffering. This is the only way and its worth it.

In the Gospels when Jesus has compassion on people, he doesn’t stop with sympathy. We see it in the feeding of the five thousand that Jesus looks out at the crowd and sees them like sheep without a shepherd, and He has compassion on them. They’re lost and wandering around just waiting to be devoured by predators. What does He do then? He teaches them many things, surely things vital to their eternal souls, and then he demonstrates his power as the Son of God by multiplying 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed 5,000 men (excluding women and children). It’s important to note that he didn’t just sling some food at them and tell them to go on their way, Jesus’ compassion included teaching and sharing things that were far more important than food. He got into the mess of their lives and offered the antidote. In fact, He went on to offer Himself as the once and final antidote and in the ultimate display of compassion He let himself be crucified; truly God and truly man, innocent and perfect, standing in the place of men like us to bear the wages of our sin.

How can we understand that and remain at a distance from the suffering around us in good conscience? We cannot. Knowing what has been done for us should drive us to expend ourselves for others. I wish I could say that I always feel jazzed up to do that, but my sinful heart won’t ever be 100% this side of glory, not even close. Thank goodness for Christ’s unending mercy.

This is the heart of our mission: to model the compassion of Christ Jesus to our homeless brothers and sisters. And boy do we have some awesome news to share that is helping us to multiply the reach of our compassion.

First, we recently hired Laura Chandler as our Chief Operating Officer. She’s a local Midlander and a fellow Trinity graduate that recently made the best decision of her life :) to come back home to Midland. In just three weeks she has things beginning to run like a well-oiled machine. It’s clear that her added value is not just double, but exponential and I am so excited to welcome her to our Field’s Edge family. She has an extensive and impressive resume that I won’t go into, but I will say that she’s served as the volunteer coordinator of her church for Church Under the Bridge Austin for the last 7 years. She loves the homeless and her skill set and her heart are incredible additions to our organization.

I wish you could hear my excitement through text, but the second thing I have to report calls for major celebration. Last month we had a goal to reach 40% of our Phase I capital total of $3.8M. It came down to the wire but by God’s grace we did it! The reason we needed to reach 40% was so that we would be eligible to apply for a grant of an additional 20% with the JE and LE Mabee Foundation. So we made the deadline and got our grant application submitted, and last Wednesday we received a letter expressing that we are the recipients of a challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation totaling $750K. I was at Murray’s Deli with my family when Laura sent me a picture of the letter and we all started crying. WOW!!

We absolutely would not be where we are without our earliest supporters: our families, friends, and particularly the Kenneth Huseman Family Partnership who donated 23.5 acres, the actual foundation for our village, and the Beal Foundation who entrusted us with a $250K challenge grant before we had much more than a dream to show them. Please join us in celebrating this provision and thanking God for these wonderful donors. We are also so grateful that these donations are not just transactional, but relational as is our mission. They have locked arms with us to help us see this thing through.

Finally, we got to celebrate the premiere of Finding Home in Boomtown, a film by Matt Maxwell that tells the story of my family as we pack up everything and jump with both feet into this crazy calling to build a tiny home community for the homeless. It was such a treat to see it on the big screen at the Yucca Theater in front of a sold-out crowd. I know that it is going to be an incredible catalyst for The Field’s Edge, but on a personal level it is so amazing to be able to revisit the last two years of our journey. The film is so well done and so faithful to our story, and it is truly a stunning work of art. If you missed the premiere it is going to show again on opening night of the West Texas Film Festival at the Ellen Noel Art Museum on November 21st at 6pm. 

Friends I’ve said this before and I will say it again, we could not do this without you. Each one of you have played a role in the success of The Field’s Edge and we can’t thank you enough. We have a lot ahead of us and still have to raise just over $1.6M. We need your help, both in giving funding and giving of yourselves. We invite you to join us in an excavation of true compassion. I just know that we are going to unearth beautiful treasures and I hope you’ll grab your shovel and come along with us.