Not long ago, I had occasion to observe a group of high school students serving a meal to about 200 homeless people in our city.  They had come to fulfill a high school requirement to complete a certain number of community service hours, which probably should have been my first clue.  I was floored by the complete disconnect between those students and the human suffering right before their eyes.  Many laughed or made jokes.  A man or woman who did not look nice or smell particularly good would draw odd looks and quips.  Serving the food looked like more of a game to them than an opportunity to help someone.

As the students prepared to leave, it did not seem as if they had been affected at all.  They were huddled in their little group, busily chatting about the next activity of the day, oblivious to the many who filed out into the searing summer heat, not sure where they might find their next meal. 

A few days later, I found a Tribune News story (May 31, 2010) on a University of Michigan Study presented last May to the Association for Psychological Science.  The study measured empathy among college students and found that, from 1979 to 2009, empathic concern for others dropped by an astounding 48% while “perspective taking” (how people imagine others points of view) dropped by 34%.  Jeannine Stein, the article’s author, wrote “researchers attribute these changes to…an increasing emphasis on self, an overactive media that bombards people with violent images and desensitizes them; and the growth of social media.”  In light of my time with those students, I was not surprised. 

Compare that with Colossians 3:12, 14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience….and over all these virtues, put on love…” 

Bottom line:  our culture has stopped paying much attention to the attire of the heart.  We are draped in self, a covering that obscures our vision of those around us, especially those that Jesus described as “the least of these.”  I find a continuing ebb of compassionate care among us, and while I am guilty of my own selfish ends, I am trying hard to watch what I’m wearing, such that those around me will find sincere compassion and love instead of the disconnected, self-driven attire of our time.  As Christians, we are called to live differently.  At the very least, that should mean that we are paying attention to how we are spiritually clothed each day.  As you dress for this day, put on compassion and love - and may those you encounter notice how differently you dress - all for God's glory.