Compassion
I recently read through the book of Matthew and something stood out to me that I hadn’t noticed before. There are 4 times when Jesus looks at people and feels compassion for them (9:36, 14:14, 15:32, 20:34). I was extremely challenged by this as I thought about it. Is that my natural response when I see people? Rarely. So I started praying that God would change my heart so that this would be true of me as well. And I haven’t had much luck with it being changed lately. So God gave me another opportunity on Friday night.
I was in my police chaplain role on a ride-along with an officer and it was a pretty slow night. The last call we had was catching two guys who had been caught trying to break into a car. As we debriefed them and searched through their things, I had a weird experience as I watched them sit on the curb. One guy was homeless and the other lived in a halfway house. I felt something that I didn’t expect…compassion. I felt sorry for these guys in a way that kind of shocked me. Here were two guys, who were living lives that none of us would ever want and they had just made another mistake that would make things even worse for them.
It felt great. I knew none of the officers I was with had any sense of anything for these guys and thought they were lost causes. So my feelings were kind of odd. But I savored the moment knowing that God had answered a prayer. So maybe there is hope at last that God will make me more like Him. Here’s to feeling more compassionate.
This is the personal blog of Jeremy Jernigan. Husband, father, teaching pastor, and student of truth.
Compassion is something we could all use a little more of. We need to remember that even people who have fallen and have no hope are creations of God. It must break god’s heart to see us like that. If we are
to be like God we too must look at everyone with that same love. I myself pray for compassion as well. Among other things. But knowing that our God hears us and loves us I have faith that he will help us grow and be the creation he wants us to be.
First step is feeling it – next step is acting upon it. As long as I have known you, you have chatted about your lack of the mercy gift. This is a cool thing that you are taking steps to work on an area of weakness. I admire you for that.
Amen…Here’s to feeling and acting more compassionately toward others! Indeed, being compassionate and able to walk in someone else’s shoes is something I think we all struggle with to varying degrees.
Your post really got me thinking…..scary I know! ; ) lol I realize for myself, it’s much easier to be compassionate toward the less fortunate (similar to who you mentioned) than it is toward the extremely fortunate….namely celebrities. This has been an area I’ve wrestled with for a bit. Ashamedly, I confess that my first response to reading another headline or hearing more news about Brittany, Lindsay, and Paris, etc. is often, “Who cares?” But as a believer, I need to keep being reminded that I need to care. Caring doesn’t mean being caught up in obsessing over how great or how awful we think they are. But it does mean having a heart and mind that hurts for those who are hurting (regardless of their socio-economic status), and longs for the grace of God to make a difference in their lives. Sadly, many of them are lost. They just happen to be more publicly lost than most people. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to them and that those people in their lives who are Christ followers are able to love on them and help them see the possibility for transformation that Christ offers.
I think the question to ask is especially important: “Do you have the same compassion and grace for them that you would toward a person close to you who doesn’t know Jesus or is in rebellion?” It’s too easy to either idealize or disdain people who are different from us.
Thinking about this question from the perspective of celebrities who seem to be self-destructing, helps me as I think about other people who I am uncomfortable around—whether because of mental illness or lifestyle choices or any number of other reasons. It keeps coming back to, “Do I love this person as Jesus does?” “Do I care about this person?” and “How could the faithfulness of God be demonstrated in this person’s life?”
Dan Edelen says it better than I ever could….”We may preach and prophesy. We may cast out demons. We may think great theological thoughts and expound mightily on the nature of Christian belief. But if we don’t love our neighbor as ourself, all our religiosity is so much dung. We may point fingers at the person who couldn’t finish the race, but in the end, what good is our own faith if we wind up as goats to whom the Lord says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Thanks again, Jeremy for the convicting post!