The Cost of Compassion
“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to a place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.” ~ Henry Noweun
Isaiah 58:the BIG IF
Did you know that compassion literally means, ‘to suffer with‘?
Another definition of compassion is ‘sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.’
When we sing in church, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord… I want to see You.” Compassion is His answer. You want to see God? Go to the hurting, sit with the broken, help the hungry. You WILL see & feel God all around you. The strongest most beautiful moments with the Lord for me have been when I am with the least of these. Praying with the broken hearted, helping an orphan, speaking truth into the lost, or a gentle touch and a sweet whisper of the Name of Jesus. It was then that Jesus was right before me… as my teacher. This is it!! What we were created for.
I am utterly grateful for a God who SO longs to intimately love & know His people that He allows for nothing besides Him to fill the void, to fill our longing hearts. Do you get that? How crazy He is for you… for those around you?
I assure you we never feel God’s love more than when we empty ourselves, than when we throw aside temporal things to show His love to the wounded, the lonely, the hurting.
The above Henry Nouwen quote is so true. As wonderful as this journey has been, it has not been an easy one. That’s okay, because God did not call us to a ‘soft’ life. What on earth are we here for if not to love the lost, lean into the forgotten, and lay down our comfy lives for the broken, so that they may ultimately know Him?
For each of us, active compassion will take us down many different roads (not necessarily to Africa!). But all the roads lead to loving more, giving more, and ultimately leading a broken world into the compassionate arms of Jesus.
The cost of compassion…
If it means living a ‘smaller’ life…
If it means having less time for TV & less money for manicures…
If it means giving up vacation time to go love on some orphans half a world a way…
If it means suffering with the forgotten & lonely…
I’ll humbly pay it over & over again, knowing that my Jesus paid the ultimate price.
Let these words encourage you, for what you have done is a great blessing. Continue to let God use you in your everyday. THANK YOU for your commitment and obedience to change lives for the town of Hosanna.
Marybeth Rolfe
