So, it was my turn to teach the high school Wednesday night program last night.  My topic was, and will be again on Sunday, learning to be compassionate and merciful and loving to the people of our tribe.  See the post titled Los Misericordiosos for that whole story.

Yeah, so I was racking my brain to find a perfect movie clip to illustrate my point about caring for people; noticing when they need us, ya know.  The Jesus movie, with Jeremy Sisto, was a home run.  I was sure of it.  It would still be great actually, because of the part when Jesus notices Mary Magdalene (Debra Messing) and asks her if she wants to come along.  Ok, well I couldn’t get the DVR/computer/TV to copy the clip right.  I moved on to Schindler’s List, the part where Liam Neeson (Schindler) is upset with himself for not being more careful with his money because he could have saved more Jews. Another home run.  But, upon further review, to do the entire Holocaust and Steven Speilberg’s retelling of it takes more than a four minute clip.

So, God, who we know has a sense of humor, showed me the perfect story while I was watching my favorite show – The Biggest Loser.  Yes, God is part of The Biggest Loser.  Coleen was sad that she only lost a few pounds on the show her trainer, Jillian just practically cried because she knew Coleen would be disappointed and probably voted off the show.  THAT is compassion. 

ABC (or whatever network it is on; I just DVR it and watch it later) pays her a LOT of money to train the contestants and help them lose weight.  She wouldn’t have to get invested in these people, after all, it has been six seasons, so ya win some, ya lose some, right?

Then at the end Coleen is pleading her case to stay on the ranch, and she is just totally at the mercy of the rest of the contestants.  All she had was, ‘please let me stay here’. 

I appreciate God’s message; find people who you care about and SHARE THEIR PAIN.  Sometimes that’s all that matters.