Friday, October 3, 2008
Compassion or Sympathy
Everyone wants to be understood. It is one of our most basic desires. God is teaching us how to listen. Language is only one barrier when it comes to understanding one another. More often, impatience and lack of genuine compassion are greater hindrances. I recently read a definition of the word compassion that made me stop and consider whether I had ever known its full meaning. According to that definition, compassion is sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. (Merriam-Webster) Compassion does not stop at mere sympathy. Jesus is our ultimate example of true compassion. He has paid the greatest price possible to alleviate the distress of sin and death. I am afraid that many of the times that I have considered myself compassionate, I have only been sympathetic. Our sympathy does little good unless it is accompanied by action.
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4 comments:
Great thoughts and so true. If you get a chance listen to Doug's message from this week (10/6). It ties in with this very nicely. We so need the compassion of God. It reminds me of a couple of scriptures, when Jesus looked and wept over Jerusalem and he said something to the effect of, "I would love to gather you to me, but you would not." I can imagine his broken heart, and compassion for his people in their broken state--refusing to come to him and find life. And the other says that, "he looked at the people and saw that they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and he had compassion on them." From the everyday to the catastrophic we should learn to be compassionate toward people in whatever situation they are in. It really is the heart of God, I think.
Thank you for so a poignant reminder. I appreciate it and I will too think differently about my own heart and whether I am simply sympathetic or truly compassionate.
Wow. That is very good. I haven't ever taken the time to realize the stark difference between the two. What a challenge.
I love you guys! I miss you like crazy.
Em
So bizarre, well not really since it's God, that you were having compassion thoughts while that's what we've been talking about at church.
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