What is “Compassion”?
A friend of mine and I are starting to get together every week in a type of “iron sharpens iron” discussion. We have both been Believers for several decades and yet we both yearn to learn more about what it means to be a relevant follower of Jesus in today’s world. To that end we started reading a book called “The Way of the Heart” by Henri Nouwen. Today I read this passage from the book and couldn’t help but see it as a wonderful insight – and also a challenge – to all of us who work on behalf of the poor and outcast.
“Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the 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. As busy, active, relevant ministers, we want to earn our bread by making a real contribution. This means first and foremost doing something to show that our presence makes a difference. And so we ignore our greatest gift, which is our ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer.”
I want to make a difference! I want to find cures for suffering! I want to be relevant! But I find myself again challenged to make sure my priorities are pure and honoring to God. Jesus, God incarnate, entered into our existence and our pain, and by his very nature showed this kind of compassion (the “ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer.”) As a follower of Jesus I am called to do the same – not in order to fix a problem, but in order to be with them as Jesus was with us. A Pastor I know calls it “The Ministry of Showing Up.” That may, of course, lead to practical help eventually, but as Nouwen writes later in the same book, “The goal of our life is not people. It is God.” God is my pursuit and from that pursuit all other parts of my life take shape. It’s how God goes about conforming me to the image of His Son.
Thoughts? Please comment below.
