Six Compassion Squashers
At the beginning of the year we asked God through a week of prayer and fasting to speak to us about what we have been called to do. One of the promises we felt he gave us was that we could expect to gather 70 people to the Vineyard in the coming year.
So we need to get to work and a couple of weeks ago I talked about how witnessing means that we need to get near to those who are far. Last week Kate talked about talking to God about people, talking to people about God.
When we talk about gathering we mean a range of things – being friendly, doing acts of kindness, helping people in need, sharing your story, introducing them to Jesus. But all these things emerge from a heart of compassion.
Compassion
Isaiah 49:13-16
A wonderful description of how God shows compassion for his people. This is what God yearns for us and for all those around us to know. He will have compassion on the afflicted ones, he has engraved us on the palms of his hands. Shall we not share that compassion with our fellow citizens?
Where does compassion come from?
I believe that compassion arises in our hearts because God is compassionate and we are made in his likeness. We get the first description of God’s compassion when God reveals himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5,6.
It is a popular refrain in the Old Testament and we often sing the words of Psalm 145:8-9 as an example.
As humans we are hard-wired to be compassionate because we are made in the image of God. But the power for compassion comes from God’s compassion for us. And we see the best example of this all the way through the life of Jesus Christ.
One of the first stories told about him in Mark 1:41 describes how Jesus' reaction to the person with leprosy was compassion. Compassion that led Jesus to touch the untouchable.
When I talk about God gathering 70 people to us I am reminding you that the way this happens is by showing compassion: in our desire to see someone who is broken get blessed, someone who is hurting get mended and someone who is hungry fed. Compassoni is expressed in letting people know that Jesus loves them and saves them.
Compassion is expressed in getting near to those who are far.
Sometimes we don’t feel like we have much compassion. Or we wish we had more.
If Jesus is at 10 on the compassion scale 1-10, and if Mother Theresa is at 9 and if Simon Cowell is at 1 (just kidding) … where do you think you are – most of the time. Some of you are naturally compassionate and sit up at 7 or 8 or 9. Others of you will place yourself at 3 or 4. Some of you move up and down.
How about seeing if you can move from where you are up a couple of notches? The result might be another person experiencing the compassion of God in a new way or hearing about Jesus’ saving grace for the first time.
What squashes compassion in our lives?
1. Individualism
“I did it my way” sang Sinatra – as though that was a good thing! We have been trained to think about “me” and how valuable we are. “You are worth it” chants the advertising mantra. We know our rights.
It is sometimes hard to realise that for most of history people didn’t think quite like that. During the Renaissance in the 16th century theologians taught us a good thing - that God created us with minds and with dignity.
But we began to like ourselves so much that we moved the “individual” gradually to the centre of humankind. We began to think that we don’t need God, we forgot we are created beings and, ironically, lost the preciousness of community.
Man’s innate selfishness is given permission to disconnect the compassion wiring and just look after our needs first.
So we ask Jesus to teach us how to give up our lives so that others may live.
2. Heritage
Some of you grew up in families that looked after no.1 first. Your families weren’t otherly, compassionate places and you didn’t see parents and friends give of themselves in compassion for each other and especially not to people outside the family. You were taught to fight your corner, make sure you got your rights, not to give generously or sacrificially.
If you grew up with a heritage lacking in compassion then there won’t be many models and examples to inspire you.
So we ask Jesus to soften our hearts with his love so that we may experience compassion for others.
3. Environment
Where are you now? Are you working and living in a compassionate environment? Is your drive to work a time of compassion, “After you. You first”, smiles and politeness? Some of you may work in places where you feel like you have to leave your heart at the front door in order to survive the cut and thrust of business.
Are you always covering your back, having to play office politics, battling with others to hit your target? Maybe you are having to make people redundant or re-possess houses.
Your heart is slowly hardening. You find that when you have the opportunity to tell someone that Jesus loves them, your heart is too hard to care. Even when you leave work, compassion for your family scores a long way below getting your dinner.
So we ask Jesus to transform our hearts and give us the strength and wisdom to remain compassionate in a tough environment.
4. Pace
Whilst for some the hours pass slowly, others live at a frantic pace.
“How are you?” we ask. “Fine but really busy” we reply - as though that were a good thing!
Our lifestyle doesn’t easily step aside for compassion. My wife has to put a date in the diary to talk about the kids. Our schedules are so tight that if the car breaks down we find we can’t keep to our commitments.
I see someone begging as I walk to work. Perhaps I have time to fumble for a few coins and toss them in their begging bowl – but only if I don’t actually have to break my stride. I have trains to catch, meetings to go to, people to see, reports to write, I don’t have time to stop and talk.
Someone asks you a searching question about Jesus and the problem of suffering. You know they are near the kingdom but you don’t have time to take them to Alpha or buy them that really helpful book or read up on it yourself and then take them out to chat one evening. You even struggle to remember to pray for them.
It is not that you are not compassionate but your diary squeezes it out of you. If this is you, make a change.
If you are working too hard to pay the mortgage, sell the house, downsize and take a lower paid job. If two of you are working to keep the lifestyle going consider giving up the second car and the extra holiday. Work part-time and open up your diary to Jesus to use in compassionate ways. Maybe your job will go to someone who needs it more.
Wouldn’t it be good if, when someone says,” can you help me?” to be able to respond, “sure, I am not busy, what can I do for you?”
So we ask Jesus to guide us into making wise lifestyle choices that give space for our compassionate hearts to breathe.
5. Fatigue
Maybe you are just tired of giving out. Compassion fatigue. You are a compassionate person and you are always giving out – to your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, the homeless, the church, going the extra mile at work. Some of you are in caring careers where you pour out compassion continually.
When you hear, “let’s go and give out donuts at Roundhay Park Bonfire” or “give up your holiday for a mission trip to the Olympics?” you want to scream, “what about me? Will someone do something for me? I am tired of giving out. I just want to go home, brew a nice cup of tea and watch the Voice.”
This church is full of people who are giving, giving, giving. Showing compassion all the time, telling people about Jesus left, right and centre. Be careful. Don’t run dry.
Our compassion reserves are filled by the Holy Spirit of Jesus. We need to be constantly filled with and experience his love and mercy. That is why we spend time in worship. That is why we pray for each other.
We are not meant to be Rambo Christians – serving away, firing off compassion everywhere because we are full of compassion musculature! No, we can only comfort with the comfort with which we have been comforted. We can only share mercy when we have received mercy. We can only speak truth and freedom when we have heard truth and freedom.
So we ask Jesus to rescue us from doing too much and doing it in our own strength and we ask him to fill us with his compassion – with the power of his Holy Spirit to be able to be compassionate beyond anything we thought we could do.
6. Blockages
Some of you are finding compassion difficult because there is a blockage to compassion in your life. What I mean is, sin. If you are nurturing an ungodly habit in your life it will block you from expressing your compassion. If you want to change the world you will need to change first.
Think of yourself as a drainpipe through which God’s rain pours. If there are leaves blocking the pipe the rain can’t get through. Sin in our lives acts as a blockage to his compassion flowing through us. All that comes out is a trickle.
- It is hard to help someone with their debt if your own credit cards are maxed out of control and you have a gambling problem.
- It is hard to counsel a couple with marriage difficulties if you are watching pornography on your laptop.
- It is hard to tell a friend about Jesus’ love and mercy for them if you are harbouring bitterness and anger about someone else deep in your heart.
- It is hard to explain about the peace that Jesus brings when your colleague has seen you lose your temper in the staff meeting.
So we repent and ask Jesus to forgive us and help us change so that we can clearly communicate compassion to others.
Compassion squashers - Individualism, heritage, environment, pace, fatigue, blockages.
How are you doing? Have you identified one or two things that squash your compassion? Can you think of ways of addressing the issue? I certainly can. It is good to know there are steps I can take to become more effective in expressing compassion.
Can we pray that the Lord will help you deal with stuff and help you become more compassionate. Someone who can change the world by ministering Jesus’ love and grace to the needy and sharing the good news with the lost?
I believe that this is a church full of compassion – we have received and experienced his compassion and we express it many ways.
As we go out to gather, let us do so with the uplift of his comfort in our wings, with the wind of his mercy at our backs and with his eyes of compassion to see the least, the lonely, the last and the lost all around us.
Let us go in the power of His Spirit to be witnesses to his love and compassion.
David Flowers, 20/05/2012