• Leaders: Compassion #11

Posted by: kidhelper on Saturday, May 28th, 2011

Leadership: Compassion #11

Compassion is a misunderstood word today. It seems that our culture defines compassion as doing good for those less fortunate, who are victims of fire, flood, earthquake, landslide, tsunami or some other uncontrollable event of nature. I am sure all this is involved with helping in cataclysmic need. But compassion is not always about big events, it is more personal than that.

When we look at the life of Jesus He was often moved with compassion on individuals whose condition was quite singular in nature, they had a specific problem. It was about the individual who was sick, poor, hungry, lonely, even the dead. Compassion involves love for others, but it is more than love. It involves caring for others. Love in action! It involves doing something about the human condition, whatever that is. However, I think it involves still more.

Compassion is deeper than concern, care or even acts of kindness. Compassion is being so deeply moved that one might be brought to tears. Weeping, not in some superficial way, to shed a tear, but rather being deeply stirred with emotion with a sense of righteous indignation. Yes, maybe anger at the roots of some injustice that causes the great personal need for assistance. We read how Jesus was so moved with compassion that he wept. It comes from a deep-seated love relationship that hurts inside.

Compassionate people tend to be driven by the overwhelming needs around them, that they perceive as solvable, fixable or remedial now, in the moment. Compassion is the process of responding to this inner surge of emotion that cannot helps to show tears and kindness move towards addressing the need forthwith, without delay. Like now, and not later. Compassionate people tend to be driven by the overwhelming needs around them, that they perceive as fixable, solvable or remedial now, in the moment.

Compassion can be focus on the needs of the sinner for forgiveness, the need for mercy, the need for food for the hungry, release for the captives, clothes for poor, money for the panhandler, shelter for the homeless, support for the fatherless, mercy for the condemned, grace for convicted, kindness for the abused, healing for the infirmed and generosity for those who are without anything.

We are in a country where it is too easy to not see the needy all around us.  We refuse to get involved with the fruits of compassion that leads us out of our comfort zone. It is only in the going abroad to other third-world cultures that we become broadsided into the recognition that more half of the world live on less than $2 a day and a fourth of the work live on less than $1 a day. By any standard you could choose, you and I are rich compared to half the world. No wonder, our compassion is stifled.

But compassion cries out, where are we who care? Where are those who weep for injustice? What are we doing so solve any problem? Our compassion is locked up with our own concerns and never leaves the four walls. With TV we have become mere voyeurs of the world. We view it all through a keyhole: floods, wars, famine, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tidal waves.  And the buzz gets our attention, but we have second thoughts—it is not about us. I don’t want to get involved.

However, there are deep needs all around us and we shut up our compassion and refuse to give one dollar! How does the love of God dwell in us? We are spectators to the world calamity. We are more informed, but we do nothing. Our compassion is just reduced to a thought, an inconvenience, or an interruption in our busy lives. Opportunity lost.

When could we do something to help the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sinner, the disadvantaged, the guilty, the hopeless, the helpless, the fatherless, the widows, the stranger and the very lonely? Any time?

So what did Jesus say? (Luke 2:18-19)  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Ten Things you can do to work on adding Compassion to your  leadership profile:

1. Plan to take a short-term mission trip. Experiencing another culture will help you appreciate your own.

2. Attend a funeral of a close friend or relative, experience, first hand, how life is fragile.

3. Visit children in hospitals, especially the terminally ill and those recovering from tragic illness and surgery.

4. Read about compassion and those who are compassionate. Mother Theresa, Compassion International, and World Vision International.

5. Work on your gift of mercy, Pray that you will be more merciful to those who deserve judgment and get consequences. Pray with those who cry out forgiveness and mercy.

6. Pray that you will be moved by the things that move the heart of God.

7. Lead by example, then encourage those you serve to attempt compassion ministries with the homeless, widows, fatherless kids.

8. Get involved in a para-church ministry that is showing compassion in your region.

9. Study how Jesus was moved with compassion and reflect upon how he ministered to those in need around Him.

10. Try to help others be compassionate towards those in need around you. Maybe doing kind deeds, meeting real needs and making a difference to help others.

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