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Compassion: Part 3
Allen Webster
Topic(s): Christian Life, Love
Links to this entire series:
Compassion in the Real World
The Roman philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.–A.D. 65) observed, “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” Cal Thomas wrote, “Love talked about is easily ignored. But love demonstrated is irresistible.”1 George Washington Carver said, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”2
People in need, need compassion. During World War I, a reporter was watching a Red Cross nurse swab the infected wound of a soldier. After watching the sickening sight for a few moments, he said to the nurse, “I would not do what you do for a million dollars.”
The nurse, looking up at the reporter, replied, “Neither would I.”
A compassionate person is so moved by the needs and hurts of others that he or she cannot help but respond3 (Matthew 9:36; cf. Mark 1:40–41). Jesus was like that. He not only talked about love and kindness, He modeled it for us (Acts 1:1; 10:38). Jesus had compassion on the sick (Matthew 14:13–14). Jesus had compassion on the demon-possessed (Mark 5:18–19; 9:20–22). Jesus had compassion on those who were hurt (Luke 10:33–35). Jesus had compassion on the wayward (Luke 15:20–24). Jesus had compassion on the hungry (Matthew 15:32; see also Mark 6:34 and Mark 8:1–8).
Picture a frail, undernourished boy living in poverty-stricken Ethiopia. He wears his only clothes, which are tattered and dirty. His calloused feet have never been covered with shoes. His eyes are dull and listless in their hollow sockets as they stare blankly around him. He blinks to shoo away the flies and mosquitoes that swarm him. His tiny form is nothing more than a skeleton covered with skin. He does not run and play because he cannot even muster enough strength to raise his arms. He only sits, waiting for someone to feed him the daily ration of one bowl of rice. Hunger gnaws at him continually. He probably will not live to see his next birthday. There are hundreds of thousands of people on this planet in a similar condition—just existing.
Our hearts ache with compassion for them—or do they? Remember the last time you flipped the TV channel to a station broadcasting a telethon depicting similar scenes? Did you quickly change the channel? Do we ever help a needy family mentioned in the church service, or like the Pharisee and the priest, do we think someone else will take care of that? Does our compassion get past the “be ye warmed and filled” stage? (James 2:16).
We worry over which foods contain the least calories and fat, and have the most fiber. Our garbage disposals eat better than most of the citizens of some countries. Our overfilled closets are cleared out at yard sales, only to be replenished with the latest fashions and footwear. Like the Epicureans of Jesus’ day, many Americans live simply to “eat, drink, and be merry.” Like the rich farmer, we tear down our “barns” to build bigger ones.
Often we should satisfy people’s physical needs before we tend to their spiritual needs. Both needs must be met. It is hard to preach the gospel to a man whose stomach is growling, or who is worried about where he will sleep that night! John expressed it this way:
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:17–18).
Viktor Frankl 4 wrote,
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. 5
We can almost always find someone who is worse off than we are. While driving
through Buffalo after a heavy snowstorm, a motorist noted a policeman,
apparently waist deep in snow, directing traffic. Feeling sorry for him, the
motorist called out “I’m sorry you have to work half buried in the snow.” He
called back, “Don’t feel sorry for me, feel sorry for my horse!”
The lonely need compassion. People all around us are in need of kindness. An old
man began to follow a much younger man in Central Park in New York City. The
young man noticed him but was unafraid since he looked harmless, and the young
man was confident in his own strength. But after a couple of blocks he turned
and asked, “Can I help you?” The old man held out his hand and said, “Will you
shake my hand?” He was longing for a human touch. There are people today who are
so lonely they will call the time just to hear a human voice.
Endnotes:
1http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/topical/called_to_kindness.htm.
Stan Mooneyham is also credited with saying, “Love talked about is easily turned
aside, but love demonstrated is irresistible.” http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art7634.asp#m.
2http://www.schipul.com/en/q/?1360.
3Robert Jeffress.
4Holocaust survivor, 1905–1997.
5Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl;
Paperback: 224 pages; Publisher: Pocket (December 1, 1997); ISBN: 0671023373.
6Stefanie Wagoner.