No Man is an Island

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne, Meditation XVII, 1572-1631, English Metaphysical Poet and churchman.

Ok, so for whatever reason, this popped into my head this morning. I had to memorize it senior year of high school. We memorized it as a part of Meditation XVII (not as the prelude to Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls). I remember this in its entirety 8 years after I memorized it. That’s pretty crazy.

But it got me thinking… no man is an island. We are created to be in community with each other. God designed us this way. But sometimes, I pull myself out of the messiness of being in relationships with people who have as many problems as I do. Sometimes, I just don’t want to deal with it… mostly because I’m too busy dealing with the stuff in my own life. But John Donne writes that “every man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind” and I find myself wishing that I cared enough about people so that I could really say that I am involved in mankind. Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not… depends on the person involved.

I think that I’m this way because I used to suppress a lot of emotion that I had and therefore am numb to a lot of stuff. When I lack compassion I feel like I am on the island that I’ve created, isolating myself further. All I can say about this is that God removes our heart of stone and gives us one of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19-20) That being said, I believe that we can step beyond our selfish selves, whatever that looks like, and impact people wherever we go with His love. Compassion is not my strength, it probably never will be, but with a little help from the Big Guy, I think that I can learn to get messy with people and share in the good and the bad of their lives. It’s definitely a process.