About Compassion

I’ve been thinking today a bit about compassion, especially in how it relates to God.
If you look it up in the dictionary, you’ll see that compassion is defined as: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. You’ll also see that compassionate is defined as” 1. having or showing compassion or 2) to have compassion for; pity. 

Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that little true compassion is found in the world today. Sure, there are a few agencies in operation that claim to be showing compassion and they are no doubt doing the best that they can, but I have to wonder just how many are operating out of true compassion. I think the best place to find out what true compassion is, is to read about in the Bible and how it relates to God and who He is.

Let’s take some time out and read Psalm 103. You will see in verse 2 of Psalm 103 (NIV) that we are reminded to not to forget God’s benefits. One of those benefits, as listed in verse 4 is that he redeems our life from the pit (hell) and crowns us with love and compassion. If you look up the definition of crowns as it is used in this sense, you will see that it means: 
1. To put a crown or garland on the head of. 
2. To invest with regal power; enthrone. 
3. To confer honor, dignity, or reward upon.

In a very real sense, this means that God has put this love and compassion upon us. It is something he has conferred or given to us, rewarded us with. It is there all of the time, it is something we wear, it is an adornment, if you will, like the crown that a king or queen would wear. It is something that is of beauty, to show that we are something special in his eyes, and consequently, if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, to the world.

Now, let’s move on to verse 8 of Psalm 103. We will see that another benefit or characteristic of God is that he “is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” I have come to realize that too many of us, due to our circumstances or whatever the case may be, have gotten into a mindset that God is a mean old man upstairs just waiting for use to mess up so he can bop us on the head with a big old stick! This is the lie of the devil! He wants us to have this mindset about God to keep us from seeking his face, praying to him, praise him and all of the other things we need to do in our relationship with our Lord! You see, if we are afraid God is going to bop us on the head, we will be afraid to approach him and build that relationship with us that he longs for with us.

It’s one thing to have the “fear of the Lord”, but it’s another thing entirely to be afraid of the Lord! We know, as the Bible teaches that fear is not of God, and he has not given us a spirit of fear. So, obviously, when we are experiencing fear of God, it is from the devil. 

We have already seen that God has crowned us with love and compassion, and God abounds in love. So, it only makes sense when we read 1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. What better way to keep us from experiencing that perfect love in God by making us afraid of him!?!?!?

Now, let’s look at verse 13 of Psalm 103. We see that as any father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Not having had much compassion bestowed upon me by my earthly father, I find this kind of difficult to comprehend. But if you think about how fathers ought to be having compassion on their children, then perhaps you have a good idea. I think it’s probably even slightly incomprehensible though, because our finite minds cannot fully understand the compassion, the love, the grace that God has bestowed upon us. Still, if we are saved, the Bible tells us that we are children of God, so we need to trust by faith, that God the Father has the compassion for us that we need. We need to believe it; we need to accept it.

There is a lot more about God’s compassion in the Bible, but I want to close this off with a final thought. Read Matthew 9:35-38. We see here that Jesus was going through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the Good News and healing every disease and sickness. “Why?” you may ask. Look at verse 36 … “when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He saw they had need. He saw that they were harassed and helpless. He was able to do something for them and he did. Love and compassion are like that. Through God enabling us, we are able to have such compassion and love for people that we can reach out and help people too. The issue is, will we? 

It’s important that we do what we can and minister to people who are in need as best we can. We are shown several examples in the Bible by Jesus as to how we are to be, and in so doing, we are given the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus and how he can meet the needs that you cannot. Salvation...! That person will thank you for all eternity for telling them about Jesus

Charging Full-Tilt!

     This morning, I was corresponding with an old friend from high school, and we were discussing many of the people who we had been in school with.  It was amazing to both of us just how much we’ve all changed and how much life has impacted each one of us in various ways.  Some have been seriously injured in accidents; others have not aged the best and even others have died in the years since we graduated high school.

      As I was reflecting on this, for whatever reason, I got a thought of how many of us spend our lives chasing after things that are nothing more than a waste of time, a waste of life, a waste of our energies and so on.  Then the thought hit me that not only do we chase after the wrong things, but we go after them “full-tilt”.

      If you know anything about the medieval times when knights of all sorts were in the world, you’ll know that the word “full-tilt” comes from that era, when in joisting competitions, knights would ride straight at each other, carrying a long wooden pole called a lance, with the hopes of knocking their opponent off their horse.  “Full-tilt” comes from the actions of the knight, who would gallop on their horse full speed and leaning (tilting) toward the horse’s head.  It was truly a spectacular crash, I’m sure, when the knight’s lances collided with the shield of their opponent.  While I’m sure there was a lot of pain involved in the impact, at least the opponent and his shield had some “give” to them and the resulting impact on the knight carrying said lance wasn’t as bad as it could be.  Can you imagine, however, what it would be like if the knight were to ride “full-tilt” into a brick wall?  It sounds insane to even think about it, and no doubt, it wasn’t done because of that.  And yet, that’s exactly what we often end up doing with our lives.

      “How?” you may ask.  Well, getting back to my correspondence with my friend.  As we were discussing past friends and the things that have happened to them, I got a thought about the “Man of La Mancha” musical.  If you are not aware of this musical, it is about an author and part time actor in the 16th century who had gone insane and thought himself to be Don Quixote (Key-hoe-tee), a knight of old, who would often see windmills as dragons or other monsters and he would charge “full-tilt” after them to slay them.  You can well imagine the results. 

      Apart from the fact he was insane, he charged after these “dragons” because he was deceived by his insanity into thinking they were a foe to be vanquished; a wrong to be righted … something he needed to engage.  I immediately thought … “This is what many of us do with our lives!”

      I’m not saying that we’re insane, but I am saying that as humans, we get deceived so easily and are lead to believe by the devil that the various things we chase after are the right things and yet, we are chasing full-tilt into a windmill, because we do not see rightly.  We ride full-tilt into useless things, things that have no true meaning, things that are not ours to ride after in the first place and ultimately … we ride full-tilt after things that may eventually kill us.  All because we do not see as we should.

      If you read the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, you will find some very interesting things that you can easily apply to your life today.  Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, who was the richest man in the world at the time.  He could have any desire he wished.  He had a harem the size of some countries (an over exaggeration, but he had a lot of wives, trust me!) and anything he could possibly want, he had.  Ultimately, do you know what he said about all that?  It was all completely meaningless!  He discovered that though he had everything the world had to offer, it was still meaningless.  How much is that like what we often feel today?

      Solomon walked away from God and chased after things that were not his to chase after and though he had it all, he had nothing.  We too in these days have walked away from God.  We have tried to chase after all the things that the world has to offer, but in reality, it’s all meaningless.  We smoke, drink, cuss, spend money we don’t have, eat too much, party til the sun comes up and so on, but what has it brought us?  Meaninglessness!  Some of us are well aged passed what we should be for our time here on earth.  Others of us have been severely injured, while others still have died.  There is so much more to life than what we chase full-tilt after. 

      Please call on the Lord while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6).  Please seek after Him and ride after Him full-tilt (Matthew 6:33).  There is more to this life than living and dying (Steven Curtis Chapman).  Please find out what it is and be saved.

Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.