Compassion
Compassion
The world is a competitive place. We compete over resources, opportunities, education, jobs, relationships and the basic necessities of life. In the process it becomes patently obvious that life in this world can be a cutthroat business that inflicts an incredible amount of pain. Daily we rub shoulders with the “walking wounded.” Sometimes these wounds come from others; sometimes they are self-inflicted; sometimes they come from abusive and competitive systems. No matter how the injuries occur, suffering people need to meet the compassion of Jesus.
Jesus showed compassion to outcasts, prostitutes, IRS agents, crowds, beggars, women, foreigners, societal outcasts as well as those with communicable diseases. He saw the people that others overlooked. And he was quick to feel for them rather than label them as lazy, promiscuous, self-destructive or a “piece of work.” When a neglectful religious leader passed judgment on a woman he didn’t know, Jesus said to him, “Simon, do you see this woman?” (Luke 7:44). Simon saw only appearances. He didn’t feel for the woman because he did not see her. Jesus really sees the hungry, the poor, the grieving, the physically impaired, the mentally deranged, the demonically oppressed and the culturally marginalized. And what he sees moves him to compassion. But it doesn’t stop there. For Jesus, compassion was a call to action, to healing and to restoration.
The early church took Jesus’ example of compassion very seriously. History recounts how the infant church shocked the Roman world with its compassion for others in the midst of plagues, war and persecution. Some historians claim that the compassion of Christians was one reason why Roman religion gave way to Christianity within a space of three hundred years.
Christ is still longing to touch this suffering world through the compassion of his church, and his apprentices are people of compassion. They know how to look for pain in the eyes of others. They know that labels don’t help people change. They believe that love always has hands and feet.
It is our choices that will reveal whether the church today becomes known as a wellspring of compassion or a place where no one particularly cares.
Reflection Questions
- When is compassion deserved or undeserved?
- What attitudes and emotions surface when you relate to emotionally needy or dysfunctional people?
- What experiences in your past make it easy or difficult to be compassionate with yourself ?
- Do you think the attitude that “people just need to work harder and show more initiative in order to get on in life” affects relationships? How?
- What is it like for you when people are compassionate toward you?
Spiritual Exercises
- Become quiet and still. Get in touch with your desire to see Jesus. • Read the crucifixion account in one of the Gospels. As you read, become one of the watchers: Mary, a disciple, a soldier or a thief. What did you see from this person’s perspective? • What is it like for Jesus to be abandoned by those he counted on? What is it like for Jesus to find that God is silent? What is it like for him to submit to the aloneness, the pain, the nakedness? What desire drives Jesus to the cross? • Let Jesus summon you into prayer.
- Construct a timeline of your losses. At each point record how you responded (e.g., anger, denial, blame, withdrawal, depression, etc.). How did moments of compassion come or not come into these moments? • Dialogue with Jesus about what you see.
- Choose one way you can show compassion to someone this week. After you have done so, talk to someone about what it was like for you to do this.
- Draw up a list of the people whose services you receive: teachers, pastors, caretakers and so on. Next to each name write down any needs you know they have (e.g., personal, financial, physical, etc.). What is God calling you to do? Listen, journal, act.
- Consider who the outsiders and disenfranchised are in your community. Choose one of these groups and find out something about them. What do they need? What do they have to give? Where is God calling you to walk in his compassion?
- Ask three people who are close to you if they will honestly answer some questions: “How do I come across?” “What is it like to be with me?” “Do I show an interest in others?” “Do I mostly talk about myself ?” • What do you learn about the way you come across?
Resources on Compassion
Comforting One Another by Karen Mains
“In themselves Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to a place where something can be done.” —Douglas Rumford
Control of the Tongue
DESIRE | to turn the destructive way I use words into authentic, loving and healing speech |
DEFINITION | Control of the tongue involves an intentional awareness and governance of words as well as tone of voice in all communication. |
SCRIPTURE | “We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. . . . A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. “This is scary: . . . With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! . . . My friends, this can’t go on.” (James 3:2, 5-7, 9-10 The Message) “A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul.” (Proverbs 18:7) “Gracious speech is like clover honey— good taste to the soul, quick energy for the body.” (Proverbs 16:24 The Message) |
PRACTICE INCLUDES |
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GOD-GIVEN FRUIT |
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