Compassion

It's easy to condemn those who are suffering, when you have no troubles. Job 12:5 (CEV)

 

Compassion literally means to suffer with someone. Jesus displayed a lot of it. The God of Hebrew Scripture declares that he is compassionate and slow to anger. Peter, in his letter, says fellow Christians are to be especially compassionate.

 

It is easy, when things are going well for us, to think that we earned the good things and that others earned bad things. Trouble is, God does not dole out goodies (or crap) based on merit (as much as we desperately want it to be the truth.) Things happen sometimes as a result of what we do or don't do. Sometimes, however, they just happen and as hard as we search for a reason (we ask, "Why?" and no answer is forthcoming,) no reason is forthcoming. It just is. We Christians are to spend less time examining the cause (fault) of sad conditions and more time responding to these conditions. Compassion withholds judgment. Yet, so often, I hear that before anything else. Somehow, "these people" brought this on themselves. "Rubbish," says God, "this is a call to action."

 

It would seem, then, that compassion and gloating and condemnation are pretty much mutually exclusive for a Christian. When we see suffering, we see an opportunity for God to act. And we do not idly see God acting. We line up as volunteers to do his work of compassion.