Compassion

I used this quote from Jena Lee. She works for Blood:Water Mission. I added a few lines of my own towards the end, but it was mostly from Jena Lee.

Compassion tends to carry a positive, warm-fuzzy type of sentiment to it. Surprisingly, is quite the opposite. The term compassion comes from the Latin words “pati” and “cum”, which mean “suffer with.” If we are serious about service, about this kind of compassion in action, we are signing ourselves up for something much deeper than the habit of active doing.

This type of service requires us to strip ourselves of the confident messiah-complex that often accompanies our attempt to serve others. It’s helplessly sitting on the curb of the street next to a homeless man who’s is so drunk and confused that his tears become your own. It’s sitting on the floor of a hut of a resilient HIV-positive mother of five, and simply holding her weak hand and letting her pain become your own. It’s listening to your friend for the umpteenth time about her dating frustrations and feeling the frustration with her. It’s sitting with a co-worker in your cubicle, listening to them cry for their child, and feeling the heart of a parent who would do anything to save their son. It’s sitting in a booth at McDonalds, listening to a confused teenager wonder why his dad doesn’t accept him for who he is. Service isn’t about being a hero. It’s about being vulnerable and suffering with one another. Jesus was humble as He suffered for us.

Jena Lee