Day Nineteen

Day Nineteen // March 10 // Compassion

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” – Plato –

In his classic hymn “Love Divine All Love’s Excelling,” Charles Wesley captured the essence of Jesus’ ministry:

“Jesus, Thou art all compassion,

Pure unbounded love Thou art;

Visit us with Thy salvation;

Enter every trembling heart.”

Isn’t it amazing that the way Jesus shares that pure, unbounded love with the world is through the compassion of His followers? The term compassion has its linguistic roots in the Latin terms com (with) and pati (suffering). We have compassion when we

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set aside indifference and connect with those who are in pain. In a curious way, this seems to be a first step toward healing.

To learn compassion, we should notice how Jesus related to people in the Gospels. When Jesus saw the blind men, for example, He “had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed Him” (Matthew 20:34). When He saw groups yearning for his teaching, “He had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). Christ noted the confusion of the people in the crowd following Him, and “had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34).

All these examples of Christ’s compassion have two things in common. First, Jesus noticed the people around Him. This teaches us that compassion is only possible when we are tuned in to others. If we’re absorbed in our own feelings, problems, worries and desires, we will overlook the needs of those God puts in our path and ignore the opportunity to help them.

Secondly, Jesus responded to people rather than reacting to them. He listens to the ten lepers rather than being irritated that they’re interrupting His conversation (Luke 17:12-19). He takes time to speak with the woman who touches the hem of His garment, instead of simply chastising her for lacking appropriate boundaries (Matthew 9:20).

Compassion is a virtue that must be practiced. We need to continually practice putting ourselves in

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someone else’s shoes. When we watch the news or hear of trouble in our extended family, we need to consciously contemplate what it must feel like to that person. We don’t need to stay on the surface of life and think, “That must be awful.” Instead, we need to dive deeper into what people are suffering. We must be willing to enter into the pain of others – coming to their side and to their aid.

We also need to recognize the barriers to compassion. It is impossible to be annoyed and compassionate at the same time. Frustration, suspicion, irritation, bitterness, dislike, and anger are all signs that we may be looking at others without compassion. We can pray to God to help us, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31). When we remove these barriers, we tenderize our hearts with compassion!