Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him! [Isaiah 30:18]
I love this verse. He rises in compassion. Perhaps you have already been through far more than you thought you could stand. But now, He rises. For you. He has longed to be gracious. You are His child. So He rises, and in perfect timing, declares enough is enough. Justice for suffering. Yeah, I love that.
There is security in knowing He fights for us; peace in knowing the compassion in His heart, confidence in knowing that He brings justice – you do not walk alone.
I want God to rise in compassion for me. I count on it.
But I have a confession: I often do not want to rise in compassion for others.
Yes, even being on the Race, even being on the mission field….or maybe because of it. I would rather numb myself to the pain I see in the eyes all around me than actually allow myself to feel compassion.
There is a lot of pain and darkness in the world. We all know this, but it is often easy to not pay attention…just to look the other way…to shrug and say that someone else is already doing the work. It is easy, until you see it firsthand:
Babies smeared with dirt and covered in flies
A woman being beaten on a street corner
The desperation of the homeless and disfigured wandering the streets
The young woman, who lives in a shack of barely four walls, trying to take care of her baby girl while her husband is dying of tuberculosis
The eyes of the street children who beg for coins and spend their days sniffing glue
The beggar man who sits on the corner of the street, half of his skull caved in….what is his story?
The young girls in the bars of the red light districts, never given a choice about the life they have
But whether you see it firsthand or not, the pain is real. The need is real. It is often overwhelming to the ones in the trenches.
On this journey…across the soil of 6 countries so far….one thing stands out. Compassion is missing in our world. True compassion is the passionate fire in the heart of God for the broken. And it is what is supposed to define those who follow Him.
While there is a fire inside me, I have long been afraid of letting it show.
Don’t make a scene. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t make people uncomfortable by your convictions. Be passionate about the ‘right things’ but not too much…..
Maybe you can relate.
It is quite a tightrope we try to walk in a world that is dark and desperate for the Light.
Why is this? Why are we afraid to have compassion? Often impressed by the minority of people who live by strong convictions and passions, we still shy away from them if they become ‘too much’….
But here’s the truth:
Jesus was too much for most people.
To be honest, if I had met Jesus in person, I’m quite sure He would have been ‘too much’ for me. Scandal always followed Him as He challenged the religious leaders…talk about rocking the boat! He healed on the Sabbath….all the time! He hung out with all the ‘wrong’ people. He consistently made those that loved having the life they wanted very nervous. He made them nervous because of overwhelming compassion, because He couldn’t look the other way and just keep walking past those that needed His touch.
This is the hardest truth: compassion demands action. We know this, which is why we avoid it. After all, taking action usually gets messy. Action involves risk. Compassion promises to wreck us and we just got the band aid fixes to stay – I had just gotten my life to seem balanced…
‘We cannot expect God’s will if we are not willing to be about God’s ways.’ Ouch.
There is a story in John 5, when Jesus arrives at a pool called Bethesda (meaning shame). Verse 4 says that the sick and disabled sat at this pool waiting…that from time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters, and the first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured!
It says ‘there were a great number’ of disabled people there. But then there was one….a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS! The angel of the Lord had stirred the waters many times, but the problem was that no one helped him get in the pool.
In thirty-eight years, no one had helped him get in the pool. But he still sat, in hope deferred.
He is the one Jesus came to, in compassion, and asked, ‘Do you want to get well?’ He is the one that got up at once….and was healed for his faith.
Seeing the magnitude of pain and brokenness, it is hard to not get completely overwhelmed. But let’s follow the example of Jesus. He may have preached to the masses, He may have had multitudes follow Him, He may have had His posse of disciples around Him, but He always saw the ONE. The one that was in front of Him. The one who’s heart was ready. The one who had the faith to walk.
Compassion is not always the big miracle you can see, but it is the person that needs to be seen, to be known. Sometimes they need help leaving the pool of shame that they have sat in for too many years. There is always someone that God intends to pursue through you. Are you willing?
“Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart” — Bob Pierce, World Vision founder
