Everyone Has Compassion

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."       Romans 12:15


           On the way to church the other day God got me to thinking about the word "compassion".  I had begun the day with absolutely no idea of what compassion really meant.  It was just another word that Christians throw around in conversation, but I had absolutely no clue as to what it really was.   You must remember that I was raised in a household which knew no forgiveness.  Where wrongs (whether real or imagined) were held against you forevermore.... so I went online and looked the word up.   According to my online source compassion is when you put someone else's problems before your own.   When you put their needs first.   
           I have worked in emergency services for 25 years, working 15 of them as a Medic.  I have spent most of my career dealing with people who were not at their best.  They are miserable. They hurt.  They don't feel well.  They are grumpy.  Quite often they are not even a little bit nice.   But while I am with them I give them my fullest attention.  I try to care for them as if they were family.   But is that compassion?  I am thinking not.   Because once I leave them I don't think of them again.  I don't wonder if they got better.  I don't recognize them if I see them again.  I find that I don't even really care how they are doing.   I know it seems wrong.  But if I let myself care about everyone whom I tended, I would be consumed and could not do a good job with the next patient.   
        The ability to turn the caring off is something learned as a young child.  I learned to not get to really know anyone.  I learned to be nice to people but it was pretty much "out of sight out of mind".   I never really had a yearning to know or be known.  I was a loner, someone who just didn't need others in  my life.   It was good preparation for the career to which I would be led, but it was pretty stinky preparation for life.   
        It wasn't until I really got God in my heart that I began to actually care about people.  It started slowly.   I had a very small group of friends whom I cared about.  I found that I was interested in how they were doing.  I found that I started to think about them even when I was not with them.  I would even remember to ask God to help them with things that were not going so well for them.  I had never really prayed for anyone before that time.  After a while as I began to let God work on some of my problems I found that I began to care about more and more people.  I found that I could feel for them.  That I really did care what was going on in their lives and not just when I was with them.   I began to pray for people who hadn't even asked for prayer..... 
        So what was God trying to tell me about compassion that morning?  I realized that He was telling me that we all have problems.  And that each of us thinks that our problems are the worst problems in the world.  But once again He reminded me that we all have the same sorts of problems.  Oh, the details might be different, but they are all basically similar.  That is what allows us to relate to the problems that others have.  We have been through (or are going through) a similar experience.  
          Haven't you wondered why it seems like we have some problems that seem to pop up quite often in a small time frame.   Are there painful things that you have suffered through this year?   Have your friends and family been suffering through similar things too?   There is a saying that bad things happen in threes.   I don't think it is necessarily limited to threes.  But it does seem that bad things happen to us and then they seem to happen all around us.   I have found that dealing with some of the bad things that have happened has helped me to feel for others going through those same hard times later.   
       I think that you have to have experienced a problem or a hard time to be able to really reach out to someone who is currently going through it.... that is compassion.  You have worked through the pain.  You have seen how God works and heals it over time.   You are willing to reach out and be there for someone who is going through it now, even though it brings back a lot of very painful memories.   But you know that God is going to get them through it.  And you know He is there with you too.  
        It is hard to set your problems aside to be there for someone else.  But God has asked us to do that.   To put our pain away and to be there for someone else.  I'm thinking that is what the sermon on the mount was all about.
        Dear Lord,  I  know that I can be very self centered at times.  Especially when things are not going well for me.  I tend to turn inward and away from those I care about.  Please help me to take my eyes off myself and to reach out to others.  Help me to show compassion and to really care for them.  To be a good and loving friend.  And help me to be humble enough to reach out to them for help too.  To allow them to be there for me.  That is a pretty hard one for me to do.   I am believing, for in You all things are possible.