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A Course in Compassion

One of the biggest trends of social media is the issue of public shaming. On one particular Facebook page from my home town, someone posted a picture of a vehicle, license plate and all. The person who posted it included a the story of seeing them throw out a cigarette butt off to the side of the road. With the issue of wildfires and such, I can see how this would be upsetting. This picture stirred up a lot of controversy as to whether using social media to “shame” people into changing was really appropriate. We may think this is something new, but this kind of shaming has been happening for a long time.

I was once on a road trip with some pastors when we stopped for some coffee in a small rural Alberta town. Inside, we saw a notice they displayed of a person who had written a bad cheque to their business. The waitress shared the story of how this person had cheated them and was no longer welcome in their establishment until the bill was paid and that by posting the cheque with all his personal information on it, they wanted to tell all their patrons about this person. One of my colleagues told her to take down the notice, took out his wallet and paid the man’s debt.He told her to tell the man his debt was paid – in full!The waitress was astounded.

How many of us would have done that? We know, of course, that we are supposed to be compassionate people, but sometimes we don’t know exactly how to do it. I believe God’s question to us today is, “What are we going to DO about it?” We know that expressing kindness and compassion are Christian virtues, but how is that lived out in this culture?

In Mark 6:30-44, we find the story of the feeding of the 5000.Here we find a group of people (many commentators suggest the number was around 10 000) who were following Jesus. It was late in the day and they needed food. Using a boy’s small lunch, Jesus performs an amazing miracle and the needs of each person were met with leftovers for later! How does the example of feeding the 5000 help us to understand what compassion is?

I believe there are many lessons this passage can teach us. I want to look at a few of them and see how we too can be a people whose compassion shines.

The first thing we learn here is that compassion involves commitment. When you look at the life of Christ, you see a man who was compassionate. He not only empathized with people’s situations,

He went out of His way to help. In order to develop a ministry of compassion, we must decide in advance to be compassionate.

There was a man in one of my former churches who reflected that kind of compassion. His name was Doug and he was an Englishman who had come to Canada and became a teacher. He was a “rules” guy and had a seemingly stern and stoic personality. But then he got involved in our church’s soup kitchen and all that changed. He went out of his way to help. He showed commitment by being there every week and he demonstrated compassion by helping in ways that were not expected.

Another thing we notice about being compassionate is it involves assuming leadership. Jesus saw the need and instead of waiting for the disciples to make up their minds, He did something about it. I was reading the story of a lady named Eilene who saw a young lady in trouble. People ignored her and refused to intervene. There is a saying that is often repeated that says, “God helps those who help themselves.” Many people, including many Christians, don’t realize it is not a Biblical statement. In fact, this is attributed to Benjamin Franklin! That being said, practically, we often base our helping others on their willingness to help themselves.

Eilene saw this young lady as a “sheep without a shepherd.”

She intervened and helped her put her life back together. It required her to risk, take the initiative and effort to help guide this young lady to straighten out her life.

But there are times where the need is greater than what one person can do on their own. Often times compassion involves teamwork. I think all of us enjoy doing things together. We were created to be in relationship and to serve together to help others is a bonus. Imagine trying to feed the 5000+ by yourself? Even with the group broken up into smaller family units, it would have taken one person hours to make the rounds. But when we work together, so much more can be accomplished. There is a synergy, where the sum is greater than the parts. When we try to do things on our own, we can burn out.

Lastly, when it comes to compassion, ultimately, it involves God’s intervention. In the story from Mark, Jesus stepped in and met the need. If anything is going to happen, ultimately, we need God’s intervention in power. We need God’s help in order to stretch our resources and give us wisdom in how to best use them. Even the government recognizes that when it comes to social services, non-profit religious groups can accomplish five times more with a dollar than the government can.

Showing compassion is risky but when we step out in faith we will experience the blessings of seeing God at work in and through us. But it all begins with our own experiences with the compassion God has shown to us through His Son Jesus. He is our example and model as we seek to live our lives to honor Him through sharing His love in word and in deed.

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